Apparatus and method for evaluating the quality of a 3D point cloud

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides an apparatus and method for evaluate the quality of a three dimensional (3D) point cloud. The apparatus comprises an image segmenter to generate a segmented two-dimensional (2D) image for each of the plurality of images; a 2D mask generator to generate a 2D mask for each of the plurality of images from the 3D point cloud; a comparator to compare the segmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result for each image; and an evaluator to evaluate the quality of the 3D point cloud based on aggregated comparison results for the plurality of images.

FIELD

Embodiments relate generally to graphic processing and more particularlyto evaluating the quality of a three dimensional (3D) point cloud.

BACKGROUND OF THE DESCRIPTION

Current parallel graphics data processing includes systems and methodsdeveloped to perform specific operations on graphics data such as, forexample, linear interpolation, tessellation, rasterization, texturemapping, depth testing, etc. Traditionally, graphics processors usedfixed function computational units to process graphics data; however,more recently, portions of graphics processors have been madeprogrammable, enabling such processors to support a wider variety ofoperations for processing vertex and fragment data.

To further increase performance, graphics processors typically implementprocessing techniques such as pipelining that attempt to process, inparallel, as much graphics data as possible throughout the differentparts of the graphics pipeline. Parallel graphics processors with singleinstruction, multiple thread (SIMT) architectures are designed tomaximize the amount of parallel processing in the graphics pipeline. Inan SIMT architecture, groups of parallel threads attempt to executeprogram instructions synchronously together as often as possible toincrease processing efficiency. A general overview of software andhardware for SIMT architectures can be found in Shane Cook, CUDAProgramming Chapter 3, pages 37-51 (2013).

Immersive experience is increasingly popular in recent years. Forimmersive experience, a volumetric model (e.g., a 3D point cloud) isusually needed. Specifically, a plurality of calibrated cameras may beused to capture (e.g., high-resolution) images of a 3D scene, and 3Dreconstruction may be employed to create the 3D point cloud of the 3Dscene. With the created 3D point cloud, virtual camera(s) may be used tonavigate the 3D scene to present any desired view in front of thevirtual camera(s) so as to deliver immersive experience.

As the created 3D point cloud is usually not perfect (e.g., key elementsof the objects in the 3D scene are missing, noise is generated, etc.),it is necessary to evaluate the quality of the created 3D point cloud(e.g., to identify the defects) to continuously improve the quality ofthe 3D point cloud. Convention approaches to evaluate the quality of 3Dpoint cloud are usually labor and time intensive.

There is a need in the art for an efficient approach to evaluate thequality of the 3D point cloud.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the presentembodiments can be understood in detail, a more particular descriptionof the embodiments, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference toembodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Itis to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate onlytypical embodiments and are therefore not to be considered limiting ofits scope.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system configured toimplement one or more aspects of the embodiments described herein;

FIG. 2A-2D illustrate parallel processor components, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 3A-3C are block diagrams of graphics multiprocessors andmultiprocessor-based GPUs, according to embodiments;

FIG. 4A-4F illustrate an exemplary architecture in which a plurality ofGPUs is communicatively coupled to a plurality of multi-core processors;

FIG. 5 illustrates a graphics processing pipeline, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates a machine learning software stack, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates a general-purpose graphics processing unit, accordingto an embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates a multi-GPU computing system, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 9A-9B illustrate layers of exemplary deep neural networks;

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary recurrent neural network;

FIG. 11 illustrates training and deployment of a deep neural network;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating distributed learning;

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary inferencing system on a chip (SOC)suitable for performing inferencing using a trained model;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a processing system, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 15A-15C illustrate computing systems and graphics processorsprovided by embodiments described herein;

FIG. 16A-16C illustrate block diagrams of additional graphics processorand compute accelerator architectures provided by embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a graphics processing engine of a graphicsprocessor in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 18A-18B illustrate thread execution logic including an array ofprocessing elements employed in a graphics processor core according toembodiments described herein;

FIG. 19 illustrates an additional execution unit, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor instructionformats according to some embodiments;

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of a graphics processor according to anotherembodiment;

FIG. 22A-22B illustrate a graphics processor command format and commandsequence, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 23 illustrates exemplary graphics software architecture for a dataprocessing system according to some embodiments;

FIG. 24A is a block diagram illustrating an IP core development system,according to an embodiment;

FIG. 24B illustrates a cross-section side view of an integrated circuitpackage assembly, according to some embodiments described herein;

FIG. 24C illustrates a package assembly that includes multiple units ofhardware logic chiplets connected to a substrate (e.g., base die);

FIG. 24D illustrates a package assembly including interchangeablechiplets, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system on a chipintegrated circuit, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 26A-26B are block diagrams illustrating exemplary graphicsprocessors for use within an SoC, according to embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 27 illustrates an exemplary environment in which a scene comprisingobject(s) are captured;

FIG. 28 illustrates an image of the scene of FIG. 27 captured by one ofa plurality of cameras;

FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a segmented twodimensional (2D) image is compared with a corresponding 2D mask toobtain a comparison result for an image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 30 is a flow chart illustrating a method for evaluating the qualityof a 3D point cloud according to an embodiment;

FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram illustrating how an image is processed togenerate a segmented 2D image for the image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 32 is a flow chart illustrating a method for generating a segmented2D image for each image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram illustrating how an image is processed togenerate a segmented 2D image for the image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 34 is a flow chart illustrating a method for generating a segmented2D image for each image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a segmented 2D image andanother segmented 2D image for a same image are merged to obtain acomparison result for the image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 36 is a flow chart illustrating a method for generating a segmented2D image for each image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 37 is a flow chart illustrating a method for generating a 2D maskfor each image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 38 is a flow chart illustrating a method for comparing thesegmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result foreach image according to an embodiment;

FIG. 39 is a flow chart illustrating a method for comparing thesegmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result foreach image according to an embodiment; and

FIG. 40 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for evaluating thequality of a 3D point cloud according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In some embodiments, a graphics processing unit (GPU) is communicativelycoupled to host/processor cores to accelerate graphics operations,machine-learning operations, pattern analysis operations, and variousgeneral-purpose GPU (GPGPU) functions. The GPU may be communicativelycoupled to the host processor/cores over a bus or another interconnect(e.g., a high-speed interconnect such as PCIe or NVLink). In otherembodiments, the GPU may be integrated on the same package or chip asthe cores and communicatively coupled to the cores over an internalprocessor bus/interconnect (i.e., internal to the package or chip).Regardless of the manner in which the GPU is connected, the processorcores may allocate work to the GPU in the form of sequences ofcommands/instructions contained in a work descriptor. The GPU then usesdedicated circuitry/logic for efficiently processing thesecommands/instructions.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a more thorough understanding. However, it will be apparent toone of skill in the art that the embodiments described herein may bepracticed without one or more of these specific details. In otherinstances, well-known features have not been described to avoidobscuring the details of the present embodiments.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the embodiments of the disclosure described below. Itwill be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that theembodiments of the disclosure may be practiced without some of thesespecific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devicesare shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the underlyingprinciples of the embodiments of the disclosure.

As used throughout the present application, the term “3D point cloud”refers to a kind of volumetric models that is created from a pluralityof images of a scene. A 3D point cloud may be represented by point dataof each point of the 3D point cloud.

As used throughout the present application, the term “2D mask” refers toan image in which each pixel has a mask value. As an example, somepixels may have a first mask value to indicate the regions correspondingto an object of interest, while other pixels may have a second maskvalue to indicate the background region.

As used throughout the present application, the term “padding” refers topad a region with padding pixels. The term “padding pixels” refer to thepixels that, when being processed, may be distinguished from theunpadded pixels. For example, the padding pixels may be backgroundpixels.

As used throughout the present application, the term “true positivespixels” refer to the pixels corresponding to the points in a 3D pointcloud that are correctly created. The term “false positives pixels”refer to the pixels corresponding to the points (i.e., noise points tobe removed) in a 3D point cloud that should not have been created buthave been created. The term “false negatives pixels” refer to the pixelscorresponding to the points (i.e., missing points) in a 3D point cloudthat should have been created but have not been created.

System Overview

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system 100 configuredto implement one or more aspects of the embodiments described herein.The computing system 100 includes a processing subsystem 101 having oneor more processor(s) 102 and a system memory 104 communicating via aninterconnection path that may include a memory hub 105. The memory hub105 may be a separate component within a chipset component or may beintegrated within the one or more processor(s) 102. The memory hub 105couples with an I/O subsystem 111 via a communication link 106. The I/Osubsystem 111 includes an I/O hub 107 that can enable the computingsystem 100 to receive input from one or more input device(s) 108.Additionally, the I/O hub 107 can enable a display controller, which maybe included in the one or more processor(s) 102, to provide outputs toone or more display device(s) 110A. In one embodiment the one or moredisplay device(s) 110A coupled with the I/O hub 107 can include a local,internal, or embedded display device.

In one embodiment the processing subsystem 101 includes one or moreparallel processor(s) 112 coupled to memory hub 105 via a bus or othercommunication link 113. The communication link 113 may be one of anynumber of standards based communication link technologies or protocols,such as, but not limited to PCI Express, or may be a vendor specificcommunications interface or communications fabric. In one embodiment theone or more parallel processor(s) 112 form a computationally focusedparallel or vector processing system that can include a large number ofprocessing cores and/or processing clusters, such as a many integratedcore (MIC) processor. In one embodiment the one or more parallelprocessor(s) 112 form a graphics processing subsystem that can outputpixels to one of the one or more display device(s) 110A coupled via theI/O Hub 107. The one or more parallel processor(s) 112 can also includea display controller and display interface (not shown) to enable adirect connection to one or more display device(s) 110B.

Within the I/O subsystem 111, a system storage unit 114 can connect tothe I/O hub 107 to provide a storage mechanism for the computing system100. An I/O switch 116 can be used to provide an interface mechanism toenable connections between the I/O hub 107 and other components, such asa network adapter 118 and/or wireless network adapter 119 that may beintegrated into the platform, and various other devices that can beadded via one or more add-in device(s) 120. The network adapter 118 canbe an Ethernet adapter or another wired network adapter. The wirelessnetwork adapter 119 can include one or more of a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, nearfield communication (NFC), or other network device that includes one ormore wireless radios.

The computing system 100 can include other components not explicitlyshown, including USB or other port connections, optical storage drives,video capture devices, and the like, may also be connected to the I/Ohub 107. Communication paths interconnecting the various components inFIG. 1 may be implemented using any suitable protocols, such as PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect) based protocols (e.g., PCI-Express),or any other bus or point-to-point communication interfaces and/orprotocol(s), such as the NV-Link high-speed interconnect, orinterconnect protocols known in the art.

In one embodiment, the one or more parallel processor(s) 112 incorporatecircuitry optimized for graphics and video processing, including, forexample, video output circuitry, and constitutes a graphics processingunit (GPU). In another embodiment, the one or more parallel processor(s)112 incorporate circuitry optimized for general purpose processing,while preserving the underlying computational architecture, described ingreater detail herein. In yet another embodiment, components of thecomputing system 100 may be integrated with one or more other systemelements on a single integrated circuit. For example, the one or moreparallel processor(s) 112, memory hub 105, processor(s) 102, and I/O hub107 can be integrated into a system on chip (SoC) integrated circuit.Alternatively, the components of the computing system 100 can beintegrated into a single package to form a system in package (SIP)configuration. In one embodiment at least a portion of the components ofthe computing system 100 can be integrated into a multi-chip module(MCM), which can be interconnected with other multi-chip modules into amodular computing system.

It will be appreciated that the computing system 100 shown herein isillustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. Theconnection topology, including the number and arrangement of bridges,the number of processor(s) 102, and the number of parallel processor(s)112, may be modified as desired. For instance, in some embodiments,system memory 104 is connected to the processor(s) 102 directly ratherthan through a bridge, while other devices communicate with systemmemory 104 via the memory hub 105 and the processor(s) 102. In otheralternative topologies, the parallel processor(s) 112 are connected tothe I/O hub 107 or directly to one of the one or more processor(s) 102,rather than to the memory hub 105. In other embodiments, the I/O hub 107and memory hub 105 may be integrated into a single chip. Someembodiments may include two or more sets of processor(s) 102 attachedvia multiple sockets, which can couple with two or more instances of theparallel processor(s) 112.

Some of the particular components shown herein are optional and may notbe included in all implementations of the computing system 100. Forexample, any number of add-in cards or peripherals may be supported, orsome components may be eliminated. Furthermore, some architectures mayuse different terminology for components similar to those illustrated inFIG. 1. For example, the memory hub 105 may be referred to as aNorthbridge in some architectures, while the I/O hub 107 may be referredto as a Southbridge.

FIG. 2A illustrates a parallel processor 200, according to anembodiment. The various components of the parallel processor 200 may beimplemented using one or more integrated circuit devices, such asprogrammable processors, application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), or field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). The illustratedparallel processor 200 is a variant of the one or more parallelprocessor(s) 112 shown in FIG. 1, according to an embodiment.

In one embodiment the parallel processor 200 includes a parallelprocessing unit 202. The parallel processing unit includes an I/O unit204 that enables communication with other devices, including otherinstances of the parallel processing unit 202. The I/O unit 204 may bedirectly connected to other devices. In one embodiment the I/O unit 204connects with other devices via the use of a hub or switch interface,such as memory hub 105. The connections between the memory hub 105 andthe I/O unit 204 form a communication link 113. Within the parallelprocessing unit 202, the I/O unit 204 connects with a host interface 206and a memory crossbar 216, where the host interface 206 receivescommands directed to performing processing operations and the memorycrossbar 216 receives commands directed to performing memory operations.

When the host interface 206 receives a command buffer via the I/O unit204, the host interface 206 can direct work operations to perform thosecommands to a front end 208. In one embodiment the front end 208 coupleswith a scheduler 210, which is configured to distribute commands orother work items to a processing cluster array 212. In one embodimentthe scheduler 210 ensures that the processing cluster array 212 isproperly configured and in a valid state before tasks are distributed tothe processing clusters of the processing cluster array 212. In oneembodiment the scheduler 210 is implemented via firmware logic executingon a microcontroller. The microcontroller implemented scheduler 210 isconfigurable to perform complex scheduling and work distributionoperations at coarse and fine granularity, enabling rapid preemption andcontext switching of threads executing on the processing array 212. Inone embodiment, the host software can prove workloads for scheduling onthe processing array 212 via one of multiple graphics processingdoorbells. The workloads can then be automatically distributed acrossthe processing array 212 by the scheduler 210 logic within the schedulermicrocontroller.

The processing cluster array 212 can include up to “N” processingclusters (e.g., cluster 214A, cluster 214B, through cluster 214N). Eachcluster 214A-214N of the processing cluster array 212 can execute alarge number of concurrent threads. The scheduler 210 can allocate workto the clusters 214A-214N of the processing cluster array 212 usingvarious scheduling and/or work distribution algorithms, which may varydepending on the workload arising for each type of program orcomputation. The scheduling can be handled dynamically by the scheduler210, or can be assisted in part by compiler logic during compilation ofprogram logic configured for execution by the processing cluster array212. In one embodiment, different clusters 214A-214N of the processingcluster array 212 can be allocated for processing different types ofprograms or for performing different types of computations.

The processing cluster array 212 can be configured to perform varioustypes of parallel processing operations. In one embodiment theprocessing cluster array 212 is configured to perform general-purposeparallel compute operations. For example, the processing cluster array212 can include logic to execute processing tasks including filtering ofvideo and/or audio data, performing modeling operations, includingphysics operations, and performing data transformations.

In one embodiment the processing cluster array 212 is configured toperform parallel graphics processing operations. In embodiments in whichthe parallel processor 200 is configured to perform graphics processingoperations, the processing cluster array 212 can include additionallogic to support the execution of such graphics processing operations,including, but not limited to texture sampling logic to perform textureoperations, as well as tessellation logic and other vertex processinglogic. Additionally, the processing cluster array 212 can be configuredto execute graphics processing related shader programs such as, but notlimited to vertex shaders, tessellation shaders, geometry shaders, andpixel shaders. The parallel processing unit 202 can transfer data fromsystem memory via the I/O unit 204 for processing. During processing thetransferred data can be stored to on-chip memory (e.g., parallelprocessor memory 222) during processing, then written back to systemmemory.

In one embodiment, when the parallel processing unit 202 is used toperform graphics processing, the scheduler 210 can be configured todivide the processing workload into approximately equal sized tasks, tobetter enable distribution of the graphics processing operations tomultiple clusters 214A-214N of the processing cluster array 212. In someembodiments, portions of the processing cluster array 212 can beconfigured to perform different types of processing. For example a firstportion may be configured to perform vertex shading and topologygeneration, a second portion may be configured to perform tessellationand geometry shading, and a third portion may be configured to performpixel shading or other screen space operations, to produce a renderedimage for display. Intermediate data produced by one or more of theclusters 214A-214N may be stored in buffers to allow the intermediatedata to be transmitted between clusters 214A-214N for furtherprocessing.

During operation, the processing cluster array 212 can receiveprocessing tasks to be executed via the scheduler 210, which receivescommands defining processing tasks from front end 208. For graphicsprocessing operations, processing tasks can include indices of data tobe processed, e.g., surface (patch) data, primitive data, vertex data,and/or pixel data, as well as state parameters and commands defining howthe data is to be processed (e.g., what program is to be executed). Thescheduler 210 may be configured to fetch the indices corresponding tothe tasks or may receive the indices from the front end 208. The frontend 208 can be configured to ensure the processing cluster array 212 isconfigured to a valid state before the workload specified by incomingcommand buffers (e.g., batch-buffers, push buffers, etc.) is initiated.

Each of the one or more instances of the parallel processing unit 202can couple with parallel processor memory 222. The parallel processormemory 222 can be accessed via the memory crossbar 216, which canreceive memory requests from the processing cluster array 212 as well asthe I/O unit 204. The memory crossbar 216 can access the parallelprocessor memory 222 via a memory interface 218. The memory interface218 can include multiple partition units (e.g., partition unit 220A,partition unit 220B, through partition unit 220N) that can each coupleto a portion (e.g., memory unit) of parallel processor memory 222. Inone implementation the number of partition units 220A-220N is configuredto be equal to the number of memory units, such that a first partitionunit 220A has a corresponding first memory unit 224A, a second partitionunit 220B has a corresponding memory unit 224B, and an Nth partitionunit 220N has a corresponding Nth memory unit 224N. In otherembodiments, the number of partition units 220A-220N may not be equal tothe number of memory devices.

In various embodiments, the memory units 224A-224N can include varioustypes of memory devices, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM)or graphics random access memory, such as synchronous graphics randomaccess memory (SGRAM), including graphics double data rate (GDDR)memory. In one embodiment, the memory units 224A-224N may also include3D stacked memory, including but not limited to high bandwidth memory(HBM). Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the specificimplementation of the memory units 224A-224N can vary, and can beselected from one of various conventional designs. Render targets, suchas frame buffers or texture maps may be stored across the memory units224A-224N, allowing partition units 220A-220N to write portions of eachrender target in parallel to efficiently use the available bandwidth ofparallel processor memory 222. In some embodiments, a local instance ofthe parallel processor memory 222 may be excluded in favor of a unifiedmemory design that utilizes system memory in conjunction with localcache memory.

In one embodiment, any one of the clusters 214A-214N of the processingcluster array 212 can process data that will be written to any of thememory units 224A-224N within parallel processor memory 222. The memorycrossbar 216 can be configured to transfer the output of each cluster214A-214N to any partition unit 220A-220N or to another cluster214A-214N, which can perform additional processing operations on theoutput. Each cluster 214A-214N can communicate with the memory interface218 through the memory crossbar 216 to read from or write to variousexternal memory devices. In one embodiment the memory crossbar 216 has aconnection to the memory interface 218 to communicate with the I/O unit204, as well as a connection to a local instance of the parallelprocessor memory 222, enabling the processing units within the differentprocessing clusters 214A-214N to communicate with system memory or othermemory that is not local to the parallel processing unit 202. In oneembodiment the memory crossbar 216 can use virtual channels to separatetraffic streams between the clusters 214A-214N and the partition units220A-220N.

While a single instance of the parallel processing unit 202 isillustrated within the parallel processor 200, any number of instancesof the parallel processing unit 202 can be included. For example,multiple instances of the parallel processing unit 202 can be providedon a single add-in card, or multiple add-in cards can be interconnected.The different instances of the parallel processing unit 202 can beconfigured to inter-operate even if the different instances havedifferent numbers of processing cores, different amounts of localparallel processor memory, and/or other configuration differences. Forexample, in one embodiment some instances of the parallel processingunit 202 can include higher precision floating point units relative toother instances. Systems incorporating one or more instances of theparallel processing unit 202 or the parallel processor 200 can beimplemented in a variety of configurations and form factors, includingbut not limited to desktop, laptop, or handheld personal computers,servers, workstations, game consoles, and/or embedded systems.

FIG. 2B is a block diagram of a partition unit 220, according to anembodiment. In one embodiment the partition unit 220 is an instance ofone of the partition units 220A-220N of FIG. 2A. As illustrated, thepartition unit 220 includes an L2 cache 221, a frame buffer interface225, and a ROP 226 (raster operations unit). The L2 cache 221 is aread/write cache that is configured to perform load and store operationsreceived from the memory crossbar 216 and ROP 226. Read misses andurgent write-back requests are output by L2 cache 221 to frame bufferinterface 225 for processing. Updates can also be sent to the framebuffer via the frame buffer interface 225 for processing. In oneembodiment the frame buffer interface 225 interfaces with one of thememory units in parallel processor memory, such as the memory units224A-224N of FIG. 2A (e.g., within parallel processor memory 222).

In graphics applications, the ROP 226 is a processing unit that performsraster operations such as stencil, z test, blending, and the like. TheROP 226 then outputs processed graphics data that is stored in graphicsmemory. In some embodiments the ROP 226 includes compression logic tocompress depth or color data that is written to memory and decompressdepth or color data that is read from memory. The compression logic canbe lossless compression logic that makes use of one or more of multiplecompression algorithms. The type of compression that is performed by theROP 226 can vary based on the statistical characteristics of the data tobe compressed. For example, in one embodiment, delta color compressionis performed on depth and color data on a per-tile basis.

In some embodiments, the ROP 226 is included within each processingcluster (e.g., cluster 214A-214N of FIG. 2A) instead of within thepartition unit 220. In such embodiment, read and write requests forpixel data are transmitted over the memory crossbar 216 instead of pixelfragment data. The processed graphics data may be displayed on a displaydevice, such as one of the one or more display device(s) 110 of FIG. 1,routed for further processing by the processor(s) 102, or routed forfurther processing by one of the processing entities within the parallelprocessor 200 of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2C is a block diagram of a processing cluster 214 within a parallelprocessing unit, according to an embodiment. In one embodiment theprocessing cluster is an instance of one of the processing clusters214A-214N of FIG. 2A. The processing cluster 214 can be configured toexecute many threads in parallel, where the term “thread” refers to aninstance of a particular program executing on a particular set of inputdata. In some embodiments, single-instruction, multiple-data (SIMD)instruction issue techniques are used to support parallel execution of alarge number of threads without providing multiple independentinstruction units. In other embodiments, single-instruction,multiple-thread (SIMT) techniques are used to support parallel executionof a large number of generally synchronized threads, using a commoninstruction unit configured to issue instructions to a set of processingengines within each one of the processing clusters. Unlike a SIMDexecution regime, where all processing engines typically executeidentical instructions, SIMT execution allows different threads to morereadily follow divergent execution paths through a given thread program.Persons skilled in the art will understand that a SIMD processing regimerepresents a functional subset of a SIMT processing regime.

Operation of the processing cluster 214 can be controlled via a pipelinemanager 232 that distributes processing tasks to SIMT parallelprocessors. The pipeline manager 232 receives instructions from thescheduler 210 of FIG. 2A and manages execution of those instructions viaa graphics multiprocessor 234 and/or a texture unit 236. The illustratedgraphics multiprocessor 234 is an exemplary instance of a SIMT parallelprocessor. However, various types of SIMT parallel processors ofdiffering architectures may be included within the processing cluster214. One or more instances of the graphics multiprocessor 234 can beincluded within a processing cluster 214. The graphics multiprocessor234 can process data and a data crossbar 240 can be used to distributethe processed data to one of multiple possible destinations, includingother shader units. The pipeline manager 232 can facilitate thedistribution of processed data by specifying destinations for processeddata to be distributed via the data crossbar 240.

Each graphics multiprocessor 234 within the processing cluster 214 caninclude an identical set of functional execution logic (e.g., arithmeticlogic units, load-store units, etc.). The functional execution logic canbe configured in a pipelined manner in which new instructions can beissued before previous instructions are complete. The functionalexecution logic supports a variety of operations including integer andfloating point arithmetic, comparison operations, Boolean operations,bit-shifting, and computation of various algebraic functions. In oneembodiment the same functional-unit hardware can be leveraged to performdifferent operations and any combination of functional units may bepresent.

The instructions transmitted to the processing cluster 214 constitutes athread. A set of threads executing across the set of parallel processingengines is a thread group. A thread group executes the same program ondifferent input data. Each thread within a thread group can be assignedto a different processing engine within a graphics multiprocessor 234. Athread group may include fewer threads than the number of processingengines within the graphics multiprocessor 234. When a thread groupincludes fewer threads than the number of processing engines, one ormore of the processing engines may be idle during cycles in which thatthread group is being processed. A thread group may also include morethreads than the number of processing engines within the graphicsmultiprocessor 234. When the thread group includes more threads than thenumber of processing engines within the graphics multiprocessor 234,processing can be performed over consecutive clock cycles. In oneembodiment multiple thread groups can be executed concurrently on agraphics multiprocessor 234.

In one embodiment the graphics multiprocessor 234 includes an internalcache memory to perform load and store operations. In one embodiment,the graphics multiprocessor 234 can forego an internal cache and use acache memory (e.g., L1 cache 248) within the processing cluster 214.Each graphics multiprocessor 234 also has access to L2 caches within thepartition units (e.g., partition units 220A-220N of FIG. 2A) that areshared among all processing clusters 214 and may be used to transferdata between threads. The graphics multiprocessor 234 may also accessoff-chip global memory, which can include one or more of local parallelprocessor memory and/or system memory. Any memory external to theparallel processing unit 202 may be used as global memory. Embodimentsin which the processing cluster 214 includes multiple instances of thegraphics multiprocessor 234 can share common instructions and data,which may be stored in the L1 cache 248.

Each processing cluster 214 may include an MMU 245 (memory managementunit) that is configured to map virtual addresses into physicaladdresses. In other embodiments, one or more instances of the MMU 245may reside within the memory interface 218 of FIG. 2A. The MMU 245includes a set of page table entries (PTEs) used to map a virtualaddress to a physical address of a tile and optionally a cache lineindex. The MMU 245 may include address translation lookaside buffers(TLB) or caches that may reside within the graphics multiprocessor 234or the L1 cache or processing cluster 214. The physical address isprocessed to distribute surface data access locality to allow efficientrequest interleaving among partition units. The cache line index may beused to determine whether a request for a cache line is a hit or miss.

In graphics and computing applications, a processing cluster 214 may beconfigured such that each graphics multiprocessor 234 is coupled to atexture unit 236 for performing texture mapping operations, e.g.,determining texture sample positions, reading texture data, andfiltering the texture data. Texture data is read from an internaltexture L1 cache (not shown) or in some embodiments from the L1 cachewithin graphics multiprocessor 234 and is fetched from an L2 cache,local parallel processor memory, or system memory, as needed. Eachgraphics multiprocessor 234 outputs processed tasks to the data crossbar240 to provide the processed task to another processing cluster 214 forfurther processing or to store the processed task in an L2 cache, localparallel processor memory, or system memory via the memory crossbar 216.A preROP 242 (pre-raster operations unit) is configured to receive datafrom graphics multiprocessor 234, direct data to ROP units, which may belocated with partition units as described herein (e.g., partition units220A-220N of FIG. 2A). The preROP 242 unit can perform optimizations forcolor blending, organize pixel color data, and perform addresstranslations.

It will be appreciated that the core architecture described herein isillustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. Anynumber of processing units, e.g., graphics multiprocessor 234, textureunits 236, preROPs 242, etc., may be included within a processingcluster 214. Further, while only one processing cluster 214 is shown, aparallel processing unit as described herein may include any number ofinstances of the processing cluster 214. In one embodiment, eachprocessing cluster 214 can be configured to operate independently ofother processing clusters 214 using separate and distinct processingunits, L1 caches, etc.

FIG. 2D shows a graphics multiprocessor 234, according to oneembodiment. In such embodiment the graphics multiprocessor 234 coupleswith the pipeline manager 232 of the processing cluster 214. Thegraphics multiprocessor 234 has an execution pipeline including but notlimited to an instruction cache 252, an instruction unit 254, an addressmapping unit 256, a register file 258, one or more general purposegraphics processing unit (GPGPU) cores 262, and one or more load/storeunits 266. The GPGPU cores 262 and load/store units 266 are coupled withcache memory 272 and shared memory 270 via a memory and cacheinterconnect 268. In one embodiment the graphics multiprocessor 234additionally includes tensor and/or ray-tracing cores 263 that includehardware logic to accelerate matrix and/or ray-tracing operations.

In one embodiment, the instruction cache 252 receives a stream ofinstructions to execute from the pipeline manager 232. The instructionsare cached in the instruction cache 252 and dispatched for execution bythe instruction unit 254. The instruction unit 254 can dispatchinstructions as thread groups (e.g., warps), with each thread of thethread group assigned to a different execution unit within GPGPU core262. An instruction can access any of a local, shared, or global addressspace by specifying an address within a unified address space. Theaddress mapping unit 256 can be used to translate addresses in theunified address space into a distinct memory address that can beaccessed by the load/store units 266.

The register file 258 provides a set of registers for the functionalunits of the graphics multiprocessor 234. The register file 258 providestemporary storage for operands connected to the data paths of thefunctional units (e.g., GPGPU cores 262, load/store units 266) of thegraphics multiprocessor 234. In one embodiment, the register file 258 isdivided between each of the functional units such that each functionalunit is allocated a dedicated portion of the register file 258. In oneembodiment, the register file 258 is divided between the different warpsbeing executed by the graphics multiprocessor 234.

The GPGPU cores 262 can each include floating point units (FPUs) and/orinteger arithmetic logic units (ALUs) that are used to executeinstructions of the graphics multiprocessor 234. The GPGPU cores 262 canbe similar in architecture or can differ in architecture, according toembodiments. For example and in one embodiment, a first portion of theGPGPU cores 262 include a single precision FPU and an integer ALU whilea second portion of the GPGPU cores include a double precision FPU. Inone embodiment the FPUs can implement the IEEE 754-2008 standard forfloating point arithmetic or enable variable precision floating pointarithmetic. The graphics multiprocessor 234 can additionally include oneor more fixed function or special function units to perform specificfunctions such as copy rectangle or pixel blending operations. In oneembodiment one or more of the GPGPU cores can also include fixed orspecial function logic.

In one embodiment the GPGPU cores 262 include SIMD logic capable ofperforming a single instruction on multiple sets of data. In oneembodiment GPGPU cores 262 can physically execute SIMD4, SIMD8, andSIMD16 instructions and logically execute SIMD1, SIMD2, and SIMD32instructions. The SIMD instructions for the GPGPU cores can be generatedat compile time by a shader compiler or automatically generated whenexecuting programs written and compiled for single program multiple data(SPMD) or SIMT architectures. Multiple threads of a program configuredfor the SIMT execution model can be executed via a single SIMDinstruction. For example and in one embodiment, eight SIMT threads thatperform the same or similar operations can be executed in parallel via asingle SIMD8 logic unit.

The memory and cache interconnect 268 is an interconnect network thatconnects each of the functional units of the graphics multiprocessor 234to the register file 258 and to the shared memory 270. In oneembodiment, the memory and cache interconnect 268 is a crossbarinterconnect that allows the load/store unit 266 to implement load andstore operations between the shared memory 270 and the register file258. The register file 258 can operate at the same frequency as theGPGPU cores 262, thus data transfer between the GPGPU cores 262 and theregister file 258 is very low latency. The shared memory 270 can be usedto enable communication between threads that execute on the functionalunits within the graphics multiprocessor 234. The cache memory 272 canbe used as a data cache for example, to cache texture data communicatedbetween the functional units and the texture unit 236. The shared memory270 can also be used as a program managed cached. Threads executing onthe GPGPU cores 262 can programmatically store data within the sharedmemory in addition to the automatically cached data that is storedwithin the cache memory 272.

FIG. 3A-3C illustrate additional graphics multiprocessors, according toembodiments. FIG. 3A-3B illustrate graphics multiprocessors 325, 350,which are variants of the graphics multiprocessor 234 of FIG. 2C. FIG.3C illustrates a graphics processing unit (GPU) 380 which includesdedicated sets of graphics processing resources arranged into multi-coregroups 365A-365N. The illustrated graphics multiprocessors 325, 350 andthe multi-core groups 365A-365N can be streaming multiprocessor (SM)capable of simultaneous execution of a large number of executionthreads.

FIG. 3A shows a graphics multiprocessor 325 according to an additionalembodiment. The graphics multiprocessor 325 includes multiple additionalinstances of execution resource units relative to the graphicsmultiprocessor 234 of FIG. 2D. For example, the graphics multiprocessor325 can include multiple instances of the instruction unit 332A-332B,register file 334A-334B, and texture unit(s) 344A-344B. The graphicsmultiprocessor 325 also includes multiple sets of graphics or computeexecution units (e.g., GPGPU core 336A-336B, tensor core 337A-337B,ray-tracing core 338A-338B) and multiple sets of load/store units340A-340B. In one embodiment the execution resource units have a commoninstruction cache 330, texture and/or data cache memory 342, and sharedmemory 346.

The various components can communicate via an interconnect fabric 327.In one embodiment the interconnect fabric 327 includes one or morecrossbar switches to enable communication between the various componentsof the graphics multiprocessor 325. In one embodiment the interconnectfabric 327 is a separate, high-speed network fabric layer upon whicheach component of the graphics multiprocessor 325 is stacked. Thecomponents of the graphics multiprocessor 325 communicate with remotecomponents via the interconnect fabric 327. For example, the GPGPU cores336A-336B, 337A-337B, and 3378A-338B can each communicate with sharedmemory 346 via the interconnect fabric 327. The interconnect fabric 327can arbitrate communication within the graphics multiprocessor 325 toensure a fair bandwidth allocation between components.

FIG. 3B shows a graphics multiprocessor 350 according to an additionalembodiment. The graphics processor includes multiple sets of executionresources 356A-356D, where each set of execution resource includesmultiple instruction units, register files, GPGPU cores, and load storeunits, as illustrated in FIG. 2D and FIG. 3A. The execution resources356A-356D can work in concert with texture unit(s) 360A-360D for textureoperations, while sharing an instruction cache 354, and shared memory353. In one embodiment the execution resources 356A-356D can share aninstruction cache 354 and shared memory 353, as well as multipleinstances of a texture and/or data cache memory 358A-358B. The variouscomponents can communicate via an interconnect fabric 352 similar to theinterconnect fabric 327 of FIG. 3A.

Persons skilled in the art will understand that the architecturedescribed in FIGS. 1, 2A-2D, and 3A-3B are descriptive and not limitingas to the scope of the present embodiments. Thus, the techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented on any properly configuredprocessing unit, including, without limitation, one or more mobileapplication processors, one or more desktop or server central processingunits (CPUs) including multi-core CPUs, one or more parallel processingunits, such as the parallel processing unit 202 of FIG. 2A, as well asone or more graphics processors or special purpose processing units,without departure from the scope of the embodiments described herein.

In some embodiments a parallel processor or GPGPU as described herein iscommunicatively coupled to host/processor cores to accelerate graphicsoperations, machine-learning operations, pattern analysis operations,and various general purpose GPU (GPGPU) functions. The GPU may becommunicatively coupled to the host processor/cores over a bus or otherinterconnect (e.g., a high speed interconnect such as PCIe or NVLink).In other embodiments, the GPU may be integrated on the same package orchip as the cores and communicatively coupled to the cores over aninternal processor bus/interconnect (i.e., internal to the package orchip). Regardless of the manner in which the GPU is connected, theprocessor cores may allocate work to the GPU in the form of sequences ofcommands/instructions contained in a work descriptor. The GPU then usesdedicated circuitry/logic for efficiently processing thesecommands/instructions.

FIG. 3C illustrates a graphics processing unit (GPU) 380 which includesdedicated sets of graphics processing resources arranged into multi-coregroups 365A-N. While the details of only a single multi-core group 365Aare provided, it will be appreciated that the other multi-core groups365B-365N may be equipped with the same or similar sets of graphicsprocessing resources.

As illustrated, a multi-core group 365A may include a set of graphicscores 370, a set of tensor cores 371, and a set of ray tracing cores372. A scheduler/dispatcher 368 schedules and dispatches the graphicsthreads for execution on the various cores 370, 371, 372. A set ofregister files 369 store operand values used by the cores 370, 371, 372when executing the graphics threads. These may include, for example,integer registers for storing integer values, floating point registersfor storing floating point values, vector registers for storing packeddata elements (integer and/or floating point data elements) and tileregisters for storing tensor/matrix values. In one embodiment, the tileregisters are implemented as combined sets of vector registers.

One or more combined level 1 (L1) caches and shared memory units 373store graphics data such as texture data, vertex data, pixel data, raydata, bounding volume data, etc., locally within each multi-core group365A. One or more texture units 374 can also be used to performtexturing operations, such as texture mapping and sampling. A Level 2(L2) cache 375 shared by all or a subset of the multi-core groups365A-365N stores graphics data and/or instructions for multipleconcurrent graphics threads. As illustrated, the L2 cache 375 may beshared across a plurality of multi-core groups 365A-365N. One or morememory controllers 367 couple the GPU 380 to a memory 366 which may be asystem memory (e.g., DRAM) and/or a dedicated graphics memory (e.g.,GDDR6 memory).

Input/output (I/O) circuitry 363 couples the GPU 380 to one or more I/Odevices 362 such as digital signal processors (DSPs), networkcontrollers, or user input devices. An on-chip interconnect may be usedto couple the I/O devices 362 to the GPU 380 and memory 366. One or moreI/O memory management units (IOMMUs) 364 of the I/O circuitry 363 couplethe I/O devices 362 directly to the system memory 366. In oneembodiment, the IOMMU 364 manages multiple sets of page tables to mapvirtual addresses to physical addresses in system memory 366. In thisembodiment, the I/O devices 362, CPU(s) 361, and GPU(s) 380 may sharethe same virtual address space.

In one implementation, the IOMMU 364 supports virtualization. In thiscase, it may manage a first set of page tables to map guest/graphicsvirtual addresses to guest/graphics physical addresses and a second setof page tables to map the guest/graphics physical addresses tosystem/host physical addresses (e.g., within system memory 366). Thebase addresses of each of the first and second sets of page tables maybe stored in control registers and swapped out on a context switch(e.g., so that the new context is provided with access to the relevantset of page tables). While not illustrated in FIG. 3C, each of the cores370, 371, 372 and/or multi-core groups 365A-365N may include translationlookaside buffers (TLBs) to cache guest virtual to guest physicaltranslations, guest physical to host physical translations, and guestvirtual to host physical translations.

In one embodiment, the CPUs 361, GPUs 380, and I/O devices 362 areintegrated on a single semiconductor chip and/or chip package. Theillustrated memory 366 may be integrated on the same chip or may becoupled to the memory controllers 367 via an off-chip interface. In oneimplementation, the memory 366 comprises GDDR6 memory which shares thesame virtual address space as other physical system-level memories,although the underlying principles of the invention are not limited tothis specific implementation.

In one embodiment, the tensor cores 371 include a plurality of executionunits specifically designed to perform matrix operations, which are thefundamental compute operation used to perform deep learning operations.For example, simultaneous matrix multiplication operations may be usedfor neural network training and inferencing. The tensor cores 371 mayperform matrix processing using a variety of operand precisionsincluding single precision floating-point (e.g., 32 bits),half-precision floating point (e.g., 16 bits), integer words (16 bits),bytes (8 bits), and half-bytes (4 bits). In one embodiment, a neuralnetwork implementation extracts features of each rendered scene,potentially combining details from multiple frames, to construct ahigh-quality final image.

In deep learning implementations, parallel matrix multiplication workmay be scheduled for execution on the tensor cores 371. The training ofneural networks, in particular, requires a significant number matrix dotproduct operations. In order to process an inner-product formulation ofan N×N×N matrix multiply, the tensor cores 371 may include at least Ndot-product processing elements. Before the matrix multiply begins, oneentire matrix is loaded into tile registers and at least one column of asecond matrix is loaded each cycle for N cycles. Each cycle, there are Ndot products that are processed.

Matrix elements may be stored at different precisions depending on theparticular implementation, including 16-bit words, 8-bit bytes (e.g.,INT8) and 4-bit half-bytes (e.g., INT4). Different precision modes maybe specified for the tensor cores 371 to ensure that the most efficientprecision is used for different workloads (e.g., such as inferencingworkloads which can tolerate quantization to bytes and half-bytes).

In one embodiment, the ray tracing cores 372 accelerate ray tracingoperations for both real-time ray tracing and non-real-time ray tracingimplementations. In particular, the ray tracing cores 372 include raytraversal/intersection circuitry for performing ray traversal usingbounding volume hierarchies (BVHs) and identifying intersections betweenrays and primitives enclosed within the BVH volumes. The ray tracingcores 372 may also include circuitry for performing depth testing andculling (e.g., using a Z buffer or similar arrangement). In oneimplementation, the ray tracing cores 372 perform traversal andintersection operations in concert with the image denoising techniquesdescribed herein, at least a portion of which may be executed on thetensor cores 371. For example, in one embodiment, the tensor cores 371implement a deep learning neural network to perform denoising of framesgenerated by the ray tracing cores 372. However, the CPU(s) 361,graphics cores 370, and/or ray tracing cores 372 may also implement allor a portion of the denoising and/or deep learning algorithms.

In addition, as described above, a distributed approach to denoising maybe employed in which the GPU 380 is in a computing device coupled toother computing devices over a network or high speed interconnect. Inthis embodiment, the interconnected computing devices share neuralnetwork learning/training data to improve the speed with which theoverall system learns to perform denoising for different types of imageframes and/or different graphics applications.

In one embodiment, the ray tracing cores 372 process all BVH traversaland ray-primitive intersections, saving the graphics cores 370 frombeing overloaded with thousands of instructions per ray. In oneembodiment, each ray tracing core 372 includes a first set ofspecialized circuitry for performing bounding box tests (e.g., fortraversal operations) and a second set of specialized circuitry forperforming the ray-triangle intersection tests (e.g., intersecting rayswhich have been traversed). Thus, in one embodiment, the multi-coregroup 365A can simply launch a ray probe, and the ray tracing cores 372independently perform ray traversal and intersection and return hit data(e.g., a hit, no hit, multiple hits, etc.) to the thread context. Theother cores 370, 371 are freed to perform other graphics or compute workwhile the ray tracing cores 372 perform the traversal and intersectionoperations.

In one embodiment, each ray tracing core 372 includes a traversal unitto perform BVH testing operations and an intersection unit whichperforms ray-primitive intersection tests. The intersection unitgenerates a “hit”, “no hit”, or “multiple hit” response, which itprovides to the appropriate thread. During the traversal andintersection operations, the execution resources of the other cores(e.g., graphics cores 370 and tensor cores 371) are freed to performother forms of graphics work.

In one particular embodiment described below, a hybrid rasterization/raytracing approach is used in which work is distributed between thegraphics cores 370 and ray tracing cores 372.

In one embodiment, the ray tracing cores 372 (and/or other cores 370,371) include hardware support for a ray tracing instruction set such asMicrosoft's DirectX Ray Tracing (DXR) which includes a DispatchRayscommand, as well as ray-generation, closest-hit, any-hit, and missshaders, which enable the assignment of unique sets of shaders andtextures for each object. Another ray tracing platform which may besupported by the ray tracing cores 372, graphics cores 370 and tensorcores 371 is Vulkan 1.1.85. Note, however, that the underlyingprinciples of the invention are not limited to any particular raytracing ISA.

In general, the various cores 372, 371, 370 may support a ray tracinginstruction set that includes instructions/functions for ray generation,closest hit, any hit, ray-primitive intersection, per-primitive andhierarchical bounding box construction, miss, visit, and exceptions.More specifically, one embodiment includes ray tracing instructions toperform the following functions:

Ray Generation—Ray generation instructions may be executed for eachpixel, sample, or other user-defined work assignment.

Closest Hit—A closest hit instruction may be executed to locate theclosest intersection point of a ray with primitives within a scene.

Any Hit—An any hit instruction identifies multiple intersections betweena ray and primitives within a scene, potentially to identify a newclosest intersection point.

Intersection—An intersection instruction performs a ray-primitiveintersection test and outputs a result.

Per-primitive Bounding box Construction—This instruction builds abounding box around a given primitive or group of primitives (e.g., whenbuilding a new BVH or other acceleration data structure).

Miss—Indicates that a ray misses all geometry within a scene, orspecified region of a scene.

Visit—Indicates the children volumes a ray will traverse.

Exceptions—Includes various types of exception handlers (e.g., invokedfor various error conditions).

Techniques for GPU to Host Processor Interconnection

FIG. 4A illustrates an exemplary architecture in which a plurality ofGPUs 410-413 are communicatively coupled to a plurality of multi-coreprocessors 405-406 over high-speed links 440A-440D (e.g., buses,point-to-point interconnects, etc.). In one embodiment, the high-speedlinks 440A-440D support a communication throughput of 4 GB/s, 30 GB/s,80 GB/s or higher, depending on the implementation. Various interconnectprotocols may be used including, but not limited to, PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 andNVLink 2.0. However, the underlying principles of the invention are notlimited to any particular communication protocol or throughput.

In addition, in one embodiment, two or more of the GPUs 410-413 areinterconnected over high-speed links 442A-442B, which may be implementedusing the same or different protocols/links than those used forhigh-speed links 440A-440D. Similarly, two or more of the multi-coreprocessors 405-406 may be connected over high speed link 443 which maybe symmetric multi-processor (SMP) buses operating at 20 GB/s, 30 GB/s,120 GB/s or higher. Alternatively, all communication between the varioussystem components shown in FIG. 4A may be accomplished using the sameprotocols/links (e.g., over a common interconnection fabric). Asmentioned, however, the underlying principles of the invention are notlimited to any particular type of interconnect technology.

In one embodiment, each multi-core processor 405-406 is communicativelycoupled to a processor memory 401-402, via memory interconnects430A-430B, respectively, and each GPU 410-413 is communicatively coupledto GPU memory 420-423 over GPU memory interconnects 450A-450D,respectively. The memory interconnects 430A-430B and 450A-450D mayutilize the same or different memory access technologies. By way ofexample, and not limitation, the processor memories 401-402 and GPUmemories 420-423 may be volatile memories such as dynamic random accessmemories (DRAMs) (including stacked DRAMs), Graphics DDR SDRAM (GDDR)(e.g., GDDR5, GDDR6), or High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and/or may benon-volatile memories such as 3D XPoint or Nano-Ram. In one embodiment,some portion of the memories may be volatile memory and another portionmay be non-volatile memory (e.g., using a two-level memory (2LM)hierarchy).

As described below, although the various processors 405-406 and GPUs410-413 may be physically coupled to a particular memory 401-402,420-423, respectively, a unified memory architecture may be implementedin which the same virtual system address space (also referred to as the“effective address” space) is distributed among all of the variousphysical memories. For example, processor memories 401-402 may eachcomprise 64 GB of the system memory address space and GPU memories420-423 may each comprise 32 GB of the system memory address space(resulting in a total of 256 GB addressable memory in this example).

FIG. 4B illustrates additional details for an interconnection between amulti-core processor 407 and a graphics acceleration module 446 inaccordance with one embodiment. The graphics acceleration module 446 mayinclude one or more GPU chips integrated on a line card which is coupledto the processor 407 via the high-speed link 440. Alternatively, thegraphics acceleration module 446 may be integrated on the same packageor chip as the processor 407.

The illustrated processor 407 includes a plurality of cores 460A-460D,each with a translation lookaside buffer 461A-461D and one or morecaches 462A-462D. The cores may include various other components forexecuting instructions and processing data which are not illustrated toavoid obscuring the underlying principles of the invention (e.g.,instruction fetch units, branch prediction units, decoders, executionunits, reorder buffers, etc.). The caches 462A-462D may comprise level 1(L1) and level 2 (L2) caches. In addition, one or more shared caches 456may be included in the caching hierarchy and shared by sets of the cores460A-460D. For example, one embodiment of the processor 407 includes 24cores, each with its own L1 cache, twelve shared L2 caches, and twelveshared L3 caches. In this embodiment, one of the L2 and L3 caches areshared by two adjacent cores. The processor 407 and the graphicsaccelerator integration module 446 connect with system memory 441, whichmay include processor memories 401-402.

Coherency is maintained for data and instructions stored in the variouscaches 462A-462D, 456 and system memory 441 via inter-core communicationover a coherence bus 464. For example, each cache may have cachecoherency logic/circuitry associated therewith to communicate to overthe coherence bus 464 in response to detected reads or writes toparticular cache lines. In one implementation, a cache snooping protocolis implemented over the coherence bus 464 to snoop cache accesses. Cachesnooping/coherency techniques are well understood by those of skill inthe art and will not be described in detail here to avoid obscuring theunderlying principles of the invention.

In one embodiment, a proxy circuit 425 communicatively couples thegraphics acceleration module 446 to the coherence bus 464, allowing thegraphics acceleration module 446 to participate in the cache coherenceprotocol as a peer of the cores. In particular, an interface 435provides connectivity to the proxy circuit 425 over high-speed link 440(e.g., a PCIe bus, NVLink, etc.) and an interface 437 connects thegraphics acceleration module 446 to the high-speed link 440.

In one implementation, an accelerator integration circuit 436 providescache management, memory access, context management, and interruptmanagement services on behalf of a plurality of graphics processingengines 431, 432, N of the graphics acceleration module 446. Thegraphics processing engines 431, 432, N may each comprise a separategraphics processing unit (GPU). Alternatively, the graphics processingengines 431, 432, N may comprise different types of graphics processingengines within a GPU such as graphics execution units, media processingengines (e.g., video encoders/decoders), samplers, and blit engines. Inother words, the graphics acceleration module may be a GPU with aplurality of graphics processing engines 431-432, N or the graphicsprocessing engines 431-432, N may be individual GPUs integrated on acommon package, line card, or chip.

In one embodiment, the accelerator integration circuit 436 includes amemory management unit (MMU) 439 for performing various memorymanagement functions such as virtual-to-physical memory translations(also referred to as effective-to-real memory translations) and memoryaccess protocols for accessing system memory 441. The MMU 439 may alsoinclude a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) (not shown) for caching thevirtual/effective to physical/real address translations. In oneimplementation, a cache 438 stores commands and data for efficientaccess by the graphics processing engines 431-432, N. In one embodiment,the data stored in cache 438 and graphics memories 433-434, M is keptcoherent with the core caches 462A-462D, 456 and system memory 411. Asmentioned, this may be accomplished via proxy circuit 425 which takespart in the cache coherency mechanism on behalf of cache 438 andmemories 433-434, M (e.g., sending updates to the cache 438 related tomodifications/accesses of cache lines on processor caches 462A-462D, 456and receiving updates from the cache 438).

A set of registers 445 store context data for threads executed by thegraphics processing engines 431-432, N and a context management circuit448 manages the thread contexts. For example, the context managementcircuit 448 may perform save and restore operations to save and restorecontexts of the various threads during contexts switches (e.g., where afirst thread is saved and a second thread is stored so that the secondthread can be execute by a graphics processing engine). For example, ona context switch, the context management circuit 448 may store currentregister values to a designated region in memory (e.g., identified by acontext pointer). It may then restore the register values when returningto the context. In one embodiment, an interrupt management circuit 447receives and processes interrupts received from system devices.

In one implementation, virtual/effective addresses from a graphicsprocessing engine 431 are translated to real/physical addresses insystem memory 411 by the MMU 439. One embodiment of the acceleratorintegration circuit 436 supports multiple (e.g., 4, 8, 16) graphicsaccelerator modules 446 and/or other accelerator devices. The graphicsaccelerator module 446 may be dedicated to a single application executedon the processor 407 or may be shared between multiple applications. Inone embodiment, a virtualized graphics execution environment ispresented in which the resources of the graphics processing engines431-432, N are shared with multiple applications or virtual machines(VMs). The resources may be subdivided into “slices” which are allocatedto different VMs and/or applications based on the processingrequirements and priorities associated with the VMs and/or applications.

Thus, the accelerator integration circuit acts as a bridge to the systemfor the graphics acceleration module 446 and provides addresstranslation and system memory cache services. In addition, theaccelerator integration circuit 436 may provide virtualizationfacilities for the host processor to manage virtualization of thegraphics processing engines, interrupts, and memory management.

Because hardware resources of the graphics processing engines 431-432, Nare mapped explicitly to the real address space seen by the hostprocessor 407, any host processor can address these resources directlyusing an effective address value. One function of the acceleratorintegration circuit 436, in one embodiment, is the physical separationof the graphics processing engines 431-432, N so that they appear to thesystem as independent units.

As mentioned, in the illustrated embodiment, one or more graphicsmemories 433-434, M are coupled to each of the graphics processingengines 431-432, N, respectively. The graphics memories 433-434, M storeinstructions and data being processed by each of the graphics processingengines 431-432, N. The graphics memories 433-434, M may be volatilememories such as DRAMs (including stacked DRAMs), GDDR memory (e.g.,GDDR5, GDDR6), or HBM, and/or may be non-volatile memories such as 3DXPoint or Nano-Ram.

In one embodiment, to reduce data traffic over the high-speed link 440,biasing techniques are used to ensure that the data stored in graphicsmemories 433-434, M is data which will be used most frequently by thegraphics processing engines 431-432, N and preferably not used by thecores 460A-460D (at least not frequently). Similarly, the biasingmechanism attempts to keep data needed by the cores (and preferably notthe graphics processing engines 431-432, N) within the caches 462A-462D,456 of the cores and system memory 411.

FIG. 4C illustrates another embodiment in which the acceleratorintegration circuit 436 is integrated within the processor 407. In thisembodiment, the graphics processing engines 431-432, N communicatedirectly over the high-speed link 440 to the accelerator integrationcircuit 436 via interface 437 and interface 435 (which, again, may beutilize any form of bus or interface protocol). The acceleratorintegration circuit 436 may perform the same operations as thosedescribed with respect to FIG. 4B, but potentially at a higherthroughput given its close proximity to the coherency bus 464 and caches462A-462D, 456.

One embodiment supports different programming models including adedicated-process programming model (no graphics acceleration modulevirtualization) and shared programming models (with virtualization). Thelatter may include programming models which are controlled by theaccelerator integration circuit 436 and programming models which arecontrolled by the graphics acceleration module 446.

In one embodiment of the dedicated process model, graphics processingengines 431-432, N are dedicated to a single application or processunder a single operating system. The single application can funnel otherapplication requests to the graphics engines 431-432, N, providingvirtualization within a VM/partition.

In the dedicated-process programming models, the graphics processingengines 431-432, N, may be shared by multiple VM/application partitions.The shared models require a system hypervisor to virtualize the graphicsprocessing engines 431-432, N to allow access by each operating system.For single-partition systems without a hypervisor, the graphicsprocessing engines 431-432, N are owned by the operating system. In bothcases, the operating system can virtualize the graphics processingengines 431-432, N to provide access to each process or application.

For the shared programming model, the graphics acceleration module 446or an individual graphics processing engine 431-432, N selects a processelement using a process handle. In one embodiment, process elements arestored in system memory 411 and are addressable using the effectiveaddress to real address translation techniques described herein. Theprocess handle may be an implementation-specific value provided to thehost process when registering its context with the graphics processingengine 431-432, N (that is, calling system software to add the processelement to the process element linked list). The lower 16-bits of theprocess handle may be the offset of the process element within theprocess element linked list.

FIG. 4D illustrates an exemplary accelerator integration slice 490. Asused herein, a “slice” comprises a specified portion of the processingresources of the accelerator integration circuit 436. Applicationeffective address space 482 within system memory 411 stores processelements 483. In one embodiment, the process elements 483 are stored inresponse to GPU invocations 481 from applications 480 executed on theprocessor 407. A process element 483 contains the process state for thecorresponding application 480. A work descriptor (WD) 484 contained inthe process element 483 can be a single job requested by an applicationor may contain a pointer to a queue of jobs. In the latter case, the WD484 is a pointer to the job request queue in the application's addressspace 482.

The graphics acceleration module 446 and/or the individual graphicsprocessing engines 431-432, N can be shared by all or a subset of theprocesses in the system. Embodiments of the invention include aninfrastructure for setting up the process state and sending a WD 484 toa graphics acceleration module 446 to start a job in a virtualizedenvironment.

In one implementation, the dedicated-process programming model isimplementation-specific. In this model, a single process owns thegraphics acceleration module 446 or an individual graphics processingengine 431. Because the graphics acceleration module 446 is owned by asingle process, the hypervisor initializes the accelerator integrationcircuit 436 for the owning partition and the operating systeminitializes the accelerator integration circuit 436 for the owningprocess at the time when the graphics acceleration module 446 isassigned.

In operation, a WD fetch unit 491 in the accelerator integration slice490 fetches the next WD 484 which includes an indication of the work tobe done by one of the graphics processing engines of the graphicsacceleration module 446. Data from the WD 484 may be stored in registers445 and used by the MMU 439, interrupt management circuit 447 and/orcontext management circuit 448 as illustrated. For example, oneembodiment of the MMU 439 includes segment/page walk circuitry foraccessing segment/page tables 486 within the OS virtual address space485. The interrupt management circuit 447 may process interrupt events492 received from the graphics acceleration module 446. When performinggraphics operations, an effective address 493 generated by a graphicsprocessing engine 431-432, N is translated to a real address by the MMU439.

In one embodiment, the same set of registers 445 are duplicated for eachgraphics processing engine 431-432, N and/or graphics accelerationmodule 446 and may be initialized by the hypervisor or operating system.Each of these duplicated registers may be included in an acceleratorintegration slice 490. Exemplary registers that may be initialized bythe hypervisor are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Hypervisor Initialized Registers 1 Slice Control Register 2 RealAddress (RA) Scheduled Processes Area Pointer 3 Authority Mask OverrideRegister 4 Interrupt Vector Table Entry Offset 5 Interrupt Vector TableEntry Limit 6 State Register 7 Logical Partition ID 8 Real address (RA)Hypervisor Accelerator Utilization Record Pointer 9 Storage DescriptionRegister

Exemplary registers that may be initialized by the operating system areshown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Operating System Initialized Registers 1 Process and ThreadIdentification 2 Effective Address (EA) Context Save/Restore Pointer 3Virtual Address (VA) Accelerator Utilization Record Pointer 4 VirtualAddress (VA) Storage Segment Table Pointer 5 Authority Mask 6 Workdescriptor

In one embodiment, each WD 484 is specific to a particular graphicsacceleration module 446 and/or graphics processing engine 431-432, N. Itcontains all the information a graphics processing engine 431-432, Nrequires to do its work or it can be a pointer to a memory locationwhere the application has set up a command queue of work to becompleted.

FIG. 4E illustrates additional details for one embodiment of a sharedmodel. This embodiment includes a hypervisor real address space 498 inwhich a process element list 499 is stored. The hypervisor real addressspace 498 is accessible via a hypervisor 496 which virtualizes thegraphics acceleration module engines for the operating system 495.

The shared programming models allow for all or a subset of processesfrom all or a subset of partitions in the system to use a graphicsacceleration module 446. There are two programming models where thegraphics acceleration module 446 is shared by multiple processes andpartitions: time-sliced shared and graphics directed shared.

In this model, the system hypervisor 496 owns the graphics accelerationmodule 446 and makes its function available to all operating systems495. For a graphics acceleration module 446 to support virtualization bythe system hypervisor 496, the graphics acceleration module 446 mayadhere to the following requirements: 1) An application's job requestmust be autonomous (that is, the state does not need to be maintainedbetween jobs), or the graphics acceleration module 446 must provide acontext save and restore mechanism. 2) An application's job request isguaranteed by the graphics acceleration module 446 to complete in aspecified amount of time, including any translation faults, or thegraphics acceleration module 446 provides the ability to preempt theprocessing of the job. 3) The graphics acceleration module 446 must beguaranteed fairness between processes when operating in the directedshared programming model.

In one embodiment, for the shared model, the application 480 is requiredto make an operating system 495 system call with a graphics accelerationmodule 446 type, a work descriptor (WD), an authority mask register(AMR) value, and a context save/restore area pointer (CSRP). Thegraphics acceleration module 446 type describes the targetedacceleration function for the system call. The graphics accelerationmodule 446 type may be a system-specific value. The WD is formattedspecifically for the graphics acceleration module 446 and can be in theform of a graphics acceleration module 446 command, an effective addresspointer to a user-defined structure, an effective address pointer to aqueue of commands, or any other data structure to describe the work tobe done by the graphics acceleration module 446. In one embodiment, theAMR value is the AMR state to use for the current process. The valuepassed to the operating system is similar to an application setting theAMR. If the accelerator integration circuit 436 and graphicsacceleration module 446 implementations do not support a User AuthorityMask Override Register (UAMOR), the operating system may apply thecurrent UAMOR value to the AMR value before passing the AMR in thehypervisor call. The hypervisor 496 may optionally apply the currentAuthority Mask Override Register (AMOR) value before placing the AMRinto the process element 483. In one embodiment, the CSRP is one of theregisters 445 containing the effective address of an area in theapplication's address space 482 for the graphics acceleration module 446to save and restore the context state. This pointer is optional if nostate is required to be saved between jobs or when a job is preempted.The context save/restore area may be pinned system memory.

Upon receiving the system call, the operating system 495 may verify thatthe application 480 has registered and been given the authority to usethe graphics acceleration module 446. The operating system 495 thencalls the hypervisor 496 with the information shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 OS to Hypervisor Call Parameters 1 A work descriptor (WD) 2 AnAuthority Mask Register (AMR) value (potentially masked). 3 An effectiveaddress (EA) Context Save/Restore Area Pointer (CSRP) 4 A process ID(PID) and optional thread ID (TID) 5 A virtual address (VA) acceleratorutilization record pointer (AURP) 6 The virtual address of the storagesegment table pointer (SSTP) 7 A logical interrupt service number (LISN)

Upon receiving the hypervisor call, the hypervisor 496 verifies that theoperating system 495 has registered and been given the authority to usethe graphics acceleration module 446. The hypervisor 496 then puts theprocess element 483 into the process element linked list for thecorresponding graphics acceleration module 446 type. The process elementmay include the information shown in Table 4.

TABLE 4 Process Element Information 1 A work descriptor (WD) 2 AnAuthority Mask Register (AMR) value (potentially masked). 3 An effectiveaddress (EA) Context Save/Restore Area Pointer (CSRP) 4 A process ID(PID) and optional thread ID (TID) 5 A virtual address (VA) acceleratorutilization record pointer (AURP) 6 The virtual address of the storagesegment table pointer (SSTP) 7 A logical interrupt service number (LISN)8 Interrupt vector table, derived from the hypervisor call parameters. 9A state register (SR) value 10 A logical partition ID (LPID) 11 A realaddress (RA) hypervisor accelerator utilization record pointer 12 TheStorage Descriptor Register (SDR)

In one embodiment, the hypervisor initializes a plurality of acceleratorintegration slice 490 registers 445.

As illustrated in FIG. 4F, one embodiment of the invention employs aunified memory addressable via a common virtual memory address spaceused to access the physical processor memories 401-402 and GPU memories420-423. In this implementation, operations executed on the GPUs 410-413utilize the same virtual/effective memory address space to access theprocessors memories 401-402 and vice versa, thereby simplifyingprogrammability. In one embodiment, a first portion of thevirtual/effective address space is allocated to the processor memory401, a second portion to the second processor memory 402, a thirdportion to the GPU memory 420, and so on. The entire virtual/effectivememory space (sometimes referred to as the effective address space) isthereby distributed across each of the processor memories 401-402 andGPU memories 420-423, allowing any processor or GPU to access anyphysical memory with a virtual address mapped to that memory.

In one embodiment, bias/coherence management circuitry 494A-494E withinone or more of the MMUs 439A-439E ensures cache coherence between thecaches of the host processors (e.g., 405) and the GPUs 410-413 andimplements biasing techniques indicating the physical memories in whichcertain types of data should be stored. While multiple instances ofbias/coherence management circuitry 494A-494E are illustrated in FIG.4F, the bias/coherence circuitry may be implemented within the MMU ofone or more host processors 405 and/or within the acceleratorintegration circuit 436.

One embodiment allows GPU-attached memory 420-423 to be mapped as partof system memory, and accessed using shared virtual memory (SVM)technology, but without suffering the typical performance drawbacksassociated with full system cache coherence. The ability to GPU-attachedmemory 420-423 to be accessed as system memory without onerous cachecoherence overhead provides a beneficial operating environment for GPUoffload. This arrangement allows the host processor 405 software tosetup operands and access computation results, without the overhead oftradition I/O DMA data copies. Such traditional copies involve drivercalls, interrupts and memory mapped I/O (MMIO) accesses that are allinefficient relative to simple memory accesses. At the same time, theability to access GPU attached memory 420-423 without cache coherenceoverheads can be critical to the execution time of an offloadedcomputation. In cases with substantial streaming write memory traffic,for example, cache coherence overhead can significantly reduce theeffective write bandwidth seen by a GPU 410-413. The efficiency ofoperand setup, the efficiency of results access, and the efficiency ofGPU computation all play a role in determining the effectiveness of GPUoffload.

In one implementation, the selection of between GPU bias and hostprocessor bias is driven by a bias tracker data structure. A bias tablemay be used, for example, which may be a page-granular structure (i.e.,controlled at the granularity of a memory page) that includes 1 or 2bits per GPU-attached memory page. The bias table may be implemented ina stolen memory range of one or more GPU-attached memories 420-423, withor without a bias cache in the GPU 410-413 (e.g., to cachefrequently/recently used entries of the bias table). Alternatively, theentire bias table may be maintained within the GPU.

In one implementation, the bias table entry associated with each accessto the GPU-attached memory 420-423 is accessed prior the actual accessto the GPU memory, causing the following operations. First, localrequests from the GPU 410-413 that find their page in GPU bias areforwarded directly to a corresponding GPU memory 420-423. Local requestsfrom the GPU that find their page in host bias are forwarded to theprocessor 405 (e.g., over a high-speed link as discussed above). In oneembodiment, requests from the processor 405 that find the requested pagein host processor bias complete the request like a normal memory read.Alternatively, requests directed to a GPU-biased page may be forwardedto the GPU 410-413. The GPU may then transition the page to a hostprocessor bias if it is not currently using the page.

The bias state of a page can be changed either by a software-basedmechanism, a hardware-assisted software-based mechanism, or, for alimited set of cases, a purely hardware-based mechanism.

One mechanism for changing the bias state employs an API call (e.g.OpenCL), which, in turn, calls the GPU's device driver which, in turn,sends a message (or enqueues a command descriptor) to the GPU directingit to change the bias state and, for some transitions, perform a cacheflushing operation in the host. The cache flushing operation is requiredfor a transition from host processor 405 bias to GPU bias, but is notrequired for the opposite transition.

In one embodiment, cache coherency is maintained by temporarilyrendering GPU-biased pages uncacheable by the host processor 405. Toaccess these pages, the processor 405 may request access from the GPU410 which may or may not grant access right away, depending on theimplementation. Thus, to reduce communication between the host processor405 and GPU 410 it is beneficial to ensure that GPU-biased pages arethose which are required by the GPU but not the host processor 405 andvice versa.

Graphics Processing Pipeline

FIG. 5 illustrates a graphics processing pipeline 500, according to anembodiment. In one embodiment a graphics processor can implement theillustrated graphics processing pipeline 500. The graphics processor canbe included within the parallel processing subsystems as describedherein, such as the parallel processor 200 of FIG. 2A, which, in oneembodiment, is a variant of the parallel processor(s) 112 of FIG. 1. Thevarious parallel processing systems can implement the graphicsprocessing pipeline 500 via one or more instances of the parallelprocessing unit (e.g., parallel processing unit 202 of FIG. 2A) asdescribed herein. For example, a shader unit (e.g., graphicsmultiprocessor 234 of FIG. 2C) may be configured to perform thefunctions of one or more of a vertex processing unit 504, a tessellationcontrol processing unit 508, a tessellation evaluation processing unit512, a geometry processing unit 516, and a fragment/pixel processingunit 524. The functions of data assembler 502, primitive assemblers 506,514, 518, tessellation unit 510, rasterizer 522, and raster operationsunit 526 may also be performed by other processing engines within aprocessing cluster (e.g., processing cluster 214 of FIG. 2A) and acorresponding partition unit (e.g., partition unit 220A-220N of FIG.2A). The graphics processing pipeline 500 may also be implemented usingdedicated processing units for one or more functions. In one embodiment,one or more portions of the graphics processing pipeline 500 can beperformed by parallel processing logic within a general purposeprocessor (e.g., CPU). In one embodiment, one or more portions of thegraphics processing pipeline 500 can access on-chip memory (e.g.,parallel processor memory 222 as in FIG. 2A) via a memory interface 528,which may be an instance of the memory interface 218 of FIG. 2A.

In one embodiment the data assembler 502 is a processing unit thatcollects vertex data for surfaces and primitives. The data assembler 502then outputs the vertex data, including the vertex attributes, to thevertex processing unit 504. The vertex processing unit 504 is aprogrammable execution unit that executes vertex shader programs,lighting and transforming vertex data as specified by the vertex shaderprograms. The vertex processing unit 504 reads data that is stored incache, local or system memory for use in processing the vertex data andmay be programmed to transform the vertex data from an object-basedcoordinate representation to a world space coordinate space or anormalized device coordinate space.

A first instance of a primitive assembler 506 receives vertex attributesfrom the vertex processing unit 504. The primitive assembler 506readings stored vertex attributes as needed and constructs graphicsprimitives for processing by tessellation control processing unit 508.The graphics primitives include triangles, line segments, points,patches, and so forth, as supported by various graphics processingapplication programming interfaces (APIs).

The tessellation control processing unit 508 treats the input verticesas control points for a geometric patch. The control points aretransformed from an input representation from the patch (e.g., thepatch's bases) to a representation that is suitable for use in surfaceevaluation by the tessellation evaluation processing unit 512. Thetessellation control processing unit 508 can also compute tessellationfactors for edges of geometric patches. A tessellation factor applies toa single edge and quantifies a view-dependent level of detail associatedwith the edge. A tessellation unit 510 is configured to receive thetessellation factors for edges of a patch and to tessellate the patchinto multiple geometric primitives such as line, triangle, orquadrilateral primitives, which are transmitted to a tessellationevaluation processing unit 512. The tessellation evaluation processingunit 512 operates on parameterized coordinates of the subdivided patchto generate a surface representation and vertex attributes for eachvertex associated with the geometric primitives.

A second instance of a primitive assembler 514 receives vertexattributes from the tessellation evaluation processing unit 512, readingstored vertex attributes as needed, and constructs graphics primitivesfor processing by the geometry processing unit 516. The geometryprocessing unit 516 is a programmable execution unit that executesgeometry shader programs to transform graphics primitives received fromprimitive assembler 514 as specified by the geometry shader programs. Inone embodiment the geometry processing unit 516 is programmed tosubdivide the graphics primitives into one or more new graphicsprimitives and calculate parameters used to rasterize the new graphicsprimitives.

In some embodiments the geometry processing unit 516 can add or deleteelements in the geometry stream. The geometry processing unit 516outputs the parameters and vertices specifying new graphics primitivesto primitive assembler 518. The primitive assembler 518 receives theparameters and vertices from the geometry processing unit 516 andconstructs graphics primitives for processing by a viewport scale, cull,and clip unit 520. The geometry processing unit 516 reads data that isstored in parallel processor memory or system memory for use inprocessing the geometry data. The viewport scale, cull, and clip unit520 performs clipping, culling, and viewport scaling and outputsprocessed graphics primitives to a rasterizer 522.

The rasterizer 522 can perform depth culling and other depth-basedoptimizations. The rasterizer 522 also performs scan conversion on thenew graphics primitives to generate fragments and output those fragmentsand associated coverage data to the fragment/pixel processing unit 524.The fragment/pixel processing unit 524 is a programmable execution unitthat is configured to execute fragment shader programs or pixel shaderprograms. The fragment/pixel processing unit 524 transforming fragmentsor pixels received from rasterizer 522, as specified by the fragment orpixel shader programs. For example, the fragment/pixel processing unit524 may be programmed to perform operations included but not limited totexture mapping, shading, blending, texture correction and perspectivecorrection to produce shaded fragments or pixels that are output to araster operations unit 526. The fragment/pixel processing unit 524 canread data that is stored in either the parallel processor memory or thesystem memory for use when processing the fragment data. Fragment orpixel shader programs may be configured to shade at sample, pixel, tile,or other granularities depending on the sampling rate configured for theprocessing units.

The raster operations unit 526 is a processing unit that performs rasteroperations including, but not limited to stencil, z-test, blending, andthe like, and outputs pixel data as processed graphics data to be storedin graphics memory (e.g., parallel processor memory 222 as in FIG. 2A,and/or system memory 104 as in FIG. 1), to be displayed on the one ormore display device(s) 110 or for further processing by one of the oneor more processor(s) 102 or parallel processor(s) 112. In someembodiments the raster operations unit 526 is configured to compress zor color data that is written to memory and decompress z or color datathat is read from memory.

Machine Learning Overview

The architecture described above can be applied to perform training andinference operations using machine learning models. Machine learning hasbeen successful at solving many kinds of tasks. The computations thatarise when training and using machine learning algorithms (e.g., neuralnetworks) lend themselves naturally to efficient parallelimplementations. Accordingly, parallel processors such asgeneral-purpose graphic processing units (GPGPUs) have played asignificant role in the practical implementation of deep neuralnetworks. Parallel graphics processors with single instruction, multiplethread (SIMT) architectures are designed to maximize the amount ofparallel processing in the graphics pipeline. In an SIMT architecture,groups of parallel threads attempt to execute program instructionssynchronously together as often as possible to increase processingefficiency. The efficiency provided by parallel machine learningalgorithm implementations allows the use of high capacity networks andenables those networks to be trained on larger datasets.

A machine learning algorithm is an algorithm that can learn based on aset of data. Embodiments of machine learning algorithms can be designedto model high-level abstractions within a data set. For example, imagerecognition algorithms can be used to determine which of severalcategories to which a given input belong; regression algorithms canoutput a numerical value given an input; and pattern recognitionalgorithms can be used to generate translated text or perform text tospeech and/or speech recognition.

An exemplary type of machine learning algorithm is a neural network.There are many types of neural networks; a simple type of neural networkis a feedforward network. A feedforward network may be implemented as anacyclic graph in which the nodes are arranged in layers. Typically, afeedforward network topology includes an input layer and an output layerthat are separated by at least one hidden layer. The hidden layertransforms input received by the input layer into a representation thatis useful for generating output in the output layer. The network nodesare fully connected via edges to the nodes in adjacent layers, but thereare no edges between nodes within each layer. Data received at the nodesof an input layer of a feedforward network are propagated (i.e., “fedforward”) to the nodes of the output layer via an activation functionthat calculates the states of the nodes of each successive layer in thenetwork based on coefficients (“weights”) respectively associated witheach of the edges connecting the layers. Depending on the specific modelbeing represented by the algorithm being executed, the output from theneural network algorithm can take various forms.

Before a machine learning algorithm can be used to model a particularproblem, the algorithm is trained using a training data set. Training aneural network involves selecting a network topology, using a set oftraining data representing a problem being modeled by the network, andadjusting the weights until the network model performs with a minimalerror for all instances of the training data set. For example, during asupervised learning training process for a neural network, the outputproduced by the network in response to the input representing aninstance in a training data set is compared to the “correct” labeledoutput for that instance, an error signal representing the differencebetween the output and the labeled output is calculated, and the weightsassociated with the connections are adjusted to minimize that error asthe error signal is backward propagated through the layers of thenetwork. The network is considered “trained” when the errors for each ofthe outputs generated from the instances of the training data set areminimized.

The accuracy of a machine learning algorithm can be affectedsignificantly by the quality of the data set used to train thealgorithm. The training process can be computationally intensive and mayrequire a significant amount of time on a conventional general-purposeprocessor. Accordingly, parallel processing hardware is used to trainmany types of machine learning algorithms. This is particularly usefulfor optimizing the training of neural networks, as the computationsperformed in adjusting the coefficients in neural networks lendthemselves naturally to parallel implementations. Specifically, manymachine learning algorithms and software applications have been adaptedto make use of the parallel processing hardware within general-purposegraphics processing devices.

FIG. 6 is a generalized diagram of a machine learning software stack600. A machine learning application 602 can be configured to train aneural network using a training dataset or to use a trained deep neuralnetwork to implement machine intelligence. The machine learningapplication 602 can include training and inference functionality for aneural network and/or specialized software that can be used to train aneural network before deployment. The machine learning application 602can implement any type of machine intelligence including but not limitedto image recognition, mapping and localization, autonomous navigation,speech synthesis, medical imaging, or language translation.

Hardware acceleration for the machine learning application 602 can beenabled via a machine learning framework 604. The machine learningframework 604 can provide a library of machine learning primitives.Machine learning primitives are basic operations that are commonlyperformed by machine learning algorithms. Without the machine learningframework 604, developers of machine learning algorithms would berequired to create and optimize the main computational logic associatedwith the machine learning algorithm, then re-optimize the computationallogic as new parallel processors are developed. Instead, the machinelearning application can be configured to perform the necessarycomputations using the primitives provided by the machine learningframework 604. Exemplary primitives include tensor convolutions,activation functions, and pooling, which are computational operationsthat are performed while training a convolutional neural network (CNN).The machine learning framework 604 can also provide primitives toimplement basic linear algebra subprograms performed by manymachine-learning algorithms, such as matrix and vector operations.

The machine learning framework 604 can process input data received fromthe machine learning application 602 and generate the appropriate inputto a compute framework 606. The compute framework 606 can abstract theunderlying instructions provided to the GPGPU driver 608 to enable themachine learning framework 604 to take advantage of hardwareacceleration via the GPGPU hardware 610 without requiring the machinelearning framework 604 to have intimate knowledge of the architecture ofthe GPGPU hardware 610. Additionally, the compute framework 606 canenable hardware acceleration for the machine learning framework 604across a variety of types and generations of the GPGPU hardware 610.

GPGPU Machine Learning Acceleration

FIG. 7 illustrates a general-purpose graphics processing unit 700,according to an embodiment. In one embodiment, the general-purposeprocessing unit (GPGPU) 700 can be configured to be particularlyefficient in processing the type of computational workloads associatedwith training deep neural networks. Additionally, the GPGPU 700 can belinked directly to other instances of the GPGPU to create a multi-GPUcluster to improve training speed for particularly deep neural networks.

The GPGPU 700 includes a host interface 702 to enable a connection witha host processor. In one embodiment the host interface 702 is a PCIExpress interface. However, the host interface can also be a vendorspecific communications interface or communications fabric. The GPGPU700 receives commands from the host processor and uses a globalscheduler 704 to distribute execution threads associated with thosecommands to a set of compute clusters 706A-706H. The compute clusters706A-706H share a cache memory 708. The cache memory 708 can serve as ahigher-level cache for cache memories within the compute clusters706A-706H.

The GPGPU 700 includes memory 714A-B coupled with the compute clusters706A-H via a set of memory controllers 712A-712B. In variousembodiments, the memory 714A-714B can include various types of memorydevices including dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) or graphics randomaccess memory, such as synchronous graphics random access memory(SGRAM), including graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory. In oneembodiment, the memory 714A-714N may also include 3D stacked memory,including but not limited to high bandwidth memory (HBM).

In one embodiment, each of the compute clusters 706A-706H includes a setof graphics multiprocessors, such as the graphics multiprocessor 400 ofFIG. 4A. The graphics multiprocessors of the compute cluster multipletypes of integer and floating-point logic units that can performcomputational operations at a range of precisions including suited formachine learning computations. For example, and in one embodiment atleast a subset of the floating-point units in each of the computeclusters 706A-H can be configured to perform 16-bit or 32-bit floatingpoint operations, while a different subset of the floating-point unitscan be configured to perform 64-bit floating point operations.

Multiple instances of the GPGPU 700 can be configured to operate as acompute cluster. The communication mechanism used by the compute clusterfor synchronization and data exchange varies across embodiments. In oneembodiment, the multiple instances of the GPGPU 700 communicate over thehost interface 702. In one embodiment the GPGPU 700 includes an I/O hub709 that couples the GPGPU 700 with a GPU link 710 that enables a directconnection to other instances of the GPGPU. In one embodiment the GPUlink 710 is coupled to a dedicated GPU-to-GPU bridge that enablescommunication and synchronization between multiple instances of theGPGPU 700. In one embodiment the GPU link 710 couples with a high-speedinterconnect to transmit and receive data to other GPGPUs or parallelprocessors. In one embodiment the multiple instances of the GPGPU 700are located in separate data processing systems and communicate via anetwork device that is accessible via the host interface 702. In oneembodiment the GPU link 710 can be configured to enable a connection toa host processor in addition to or as an alternative to the hostinterface 702.

While the illustrated configuration of the GPGPU 700 can be configuredto train neural networks, one embodiment provides alternateconfiguration of the GPGPU 700 that can be configured for deploymentwithin a high performance or low power inferencing platform. In aninferencing configuration, the GPGPU 700 includes fewer of the computeclusters 706A-706H relative to the training configuration. Additionally,memory technology associated with the memory 714A-714B may differbetween inferencing and training configurations. In one embodiment, theinferencing configuration of the GPGPU 700 can support inferencingspecific instructions. For example, an inferencing configuration canprovide support for one or more 8-bit integer dot product instructions,which are commonly used during inferencing operations for deployedneural networks.

FIG. 8 illustrates a multi-GPU computing system 800, according to anembodiment. The multi-GPU computing system 800 can include a processor802 coupled to multiple GPGPUs 806A-806D via a host interface switch804. The host interface switch 804, in one embodiment, is a PCI expressswitch device that couples the processor 802 to a PCI express bus overwhich the processor 802 can communicate with the set of GPGPUs806A-806D. Each of the multiple GPGPUs 806A-806D can be an instance ofthe GPGPU 700 of FIG. 7. The GPGPUs 806A-806D can interconnect via a setof high-speed point to point GPU to GPU links 816. The high-speed GPU toGPU links can connect to each of the GPGPUs 806A-806D via a dedicatedGPU link, such as the GPU link 710 as in FIG. 7. The P2P GPU links 816enable direct communication between each of the GPGPUs 806A-806D withoutrequiring communication over the host interface bus to which theprocessor 802 is connected. With GPU-to-GPU traffic directed to the P2PGPU links, the host interface bus remains available for system memoryaccess or to communicate with other instances of the multi-GPU computingsystem 800, for example, via one or more network devices. While in theillustrated embodiment the GPGPUs 806A-D connect to the processor 802via the host interface switch 804, in one embodiment the processor 802includes direct support for the P2P GPU links 816 and can connectdirectly to the GPGPUs 806A-806D.

Machine Learning Neural Network Implementations

The computing architecture provided by embodiments described herein canbe configured to perform the types of parallel processing that isparticularly suited for training and deploying neural networks formachine learning. A neural network can be generalized as a network offunctions having a graph relationship. As is well-known in the art,there are a variety of types of neural network implementations used inmachine learning. One exemplary type of neural network is thefeedforward network, as previously described.

A second exemplary type of neural network is the Convolutional NeuralNetwork (CNN). A CNN is a specialized feedforward neural network forprocessing data having a known, grid-like topology, such as image data.Accordingly, CNNs are commonly used for compute vision and imagerecognition applications, but they also may be used for other types ofpattern recognition such as speech and language processing. The nodes inthe CNN input layer are organized into a set of “filters” (featuredetectors inspired by the receptive fields found in the retina), and theoutput of each set of filters is propagated to nodes in successivelayers of the network. The computations for a CNN include applying theconvolution mathematical operation to each filter to produce the outputof that filter. Convolution is a specialized kind of mathematicaloperation performed by two functions to produce a third function that isa modified version of one of the two original functions. Inconvolutional network terminology, the first function to the convolutioncan be referred to as the input, while the second function can bereferred to as the convolution kernel. The output may be referred to asthe feature map. For example, the input to a convolution layer can be amultidimensional array of data that defines the various color componentsof an input image. The convolution kernel can be a multidimensionalarray of parameters, where the parameters are adapted by the trainingprocess for the neural network.

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are a family of feedforward neuralnetworks that include feedback connections between layers. RNNs enablemodeling of sequential data by sharing parameter data across differentparts of the neural network. The architecture for an RNN includescycles. The cycles represent the influence of a present value of avariable on its own value at a future time, as at least a portion of theoutput data from the RNN is used as feedback for processing subsequentinput in a sequence. This feature makes RNNs particularly useful forlanguage processing due to the variable nature in which language datacan be composed.

The figures described below present exemplary feedforward, CNN, and RNNnetworks, as well as describe a general process for respectivelytraining and deploying each of those types of networks. It will beunderstood that these descriptions are exemplary and non-limiting as toany specific embodiment described herein and the concepts illustratedcan be applied generally to deep neural networks and machine learningtechniques in general.

The exemplary neural networks described above can be used to performdeep learning. Deep learning is machine learning using deep neuralnetworks. The deep neural networks used in deep learning are artificialneural networks composed of multiple hidden layers, as opposed toshallow neural networks that include only a single hidden layer. Deeperneural networks are generally more computationally intensive to train.However, the additional hidden layers of the network enable multisteppattern recognition that results in reduced output error relative toshallow machine learning techniques.

Deep neural networks used in deep learning typically include a front-endnetwork to perform feature recognition coupled to a back-end networkwhich represents a mathematical model that can perform operations (e.g.,object classification, speech recognition, etc.) based on the featurerepresentation provided to the model. Deep learning enables machinelearning to be performed without requiring hand crafted featureengineering to be performed for the model. Instead, deep neural networkscan learn features based on statistical structure or correlation withinthe input data. The learned features can be provided to a mathematicalmodel that can map detected features to an output. The mathematicalmodel used by the network is generally specialized for the specific taskto be performed, and different models will be used to perform differenttask.

Once the neural network is structured, a learning model can be appliedto the network to train the network to perform specific tasks. Thelearning model describes how to adjust the weights within the model toreduce the output error of the network. Backpropagation of errors is acommon method used to train neural networks. An input vector ispresented to the network for processing. The output of the network iscompared to the desired output using a loss function and an error valueis calculated for each of the neurons in the output layer. The errorvalues are then propagated backwards until each neuron has an associatederror value which roughly represents its contribution to the originaloutput. The network can then learn from those errors using an algorithm,such as the stochastic gradient descent algorithm, to update the weightsof the of the neural network.

FIG. 9A-9B illustrate an exemplary convolutional neural network. FIG. 9Aillustrates various layers within a CNN. As shown in FIG. 9A, anexemplary CNN used to model image processing can receive input 902describing the red, green, and blue (RGB) components of an input image.The input 902 can be processed by multiple convolutional layers (e.g.,convolutional layer 904, convolutional layer 906). The output from themultiple convolutional layers may optionally be processed by a set offully connected layers 908. Neurons in a fully connected layer have fullconnections to all activations in the previous layer, as previouslydescribed for a feedforward network. The output from the fully connectedlayers 908 can be used to generate an output result from the network.The activations within the fully connected layers 908 can be computedusing matrix multiplication instead of convolution. Not all CNNimplementations make use of fully connected layers 908. For example, insome implementations the convolutional layer 906 can generate output forthe CNN.

The convolutional layers are sparsely connected, which differs fromtraditional neural network configuration found in the fully connectedlayers 908. Traditional neural network layers are fully connected, suchthat every output unit interacts with every input unit. However, theconvolutional layers are sparsely connected because the output of theconvolution of a field is input (instead of the respective state valueof each of the nodes in the field) to the nodes of the subsequent layer,as illustrated. The kernels associated with the convolutional layersperform convolution operations, the output of which is sent to the nextlayer. The dimensionality reduction performed within the convolutionallayers is one aspect that enables the CNN to scale to process largeimages.

FIG. 9B illustrates exemplary computation stages within a convolutionallayer of a CNN. Input to a convolutional layer 912 of a CNN can beprocessed in three stages of a convolutional layer 914. The three stagescan include a convolution stage 916, a detector stage 918, and a poolingstage 920. The convolution layer 914 can then output data to asuccessive convolutional layer. The final convolutional layer of thenetwork can generate output feature map data or provide input to a fullyconnected layer, for example, to generate a classification value for theinput to the CNN.

In the convolution stage 916 performs several convolutions in parallelto produce a set of linear activations. The convolution stage 916 caninclude an affine transformation, which is any transformation that canbe specified as a linear transformation plus a translation. Affinetransformations include rotations, translations, scaling, andcombinations of these transformations. The convolution stage computesthe output of functions (e.g., neurons) that are connected to specificregions in the input, which can be determined as the local regionassociated with the neuron. The neurons compute a dot product betweenthe weights of the neurons and the region in the local input to whichthe neurons are connected. The output from the convolution stage 916defines a set of linear activations that are processed by successivestages of the convolutional layer 914.

The linear activations can be processed by a detector stage 918. In thedetector stage 918, each linear activation is processed by a non-linearactivation function. The non-linear activation function increases thenonlinear properties of the overall network without affecting thereceptive fields of the convolution layer. Several types of non-linearactivation functions may be used. One particular type is the rectifiedlinear unit (ReLU), which uses an activation function defined asƒ(x)=max (0, x), such that the activation is thresholded at zero.

The pooling stage 920 uses a pooling function that replaces the outputof the convolutional layer 906 with a summary statistic of the nearbyoutputs. The pooling function can be used to introduce translationinvariance into the neural network, such that small translations to theinput do not change the pooled outputs. Invariance to local translationcan be useful in scenarios where the presence of a feature in the inputdata is more important than the precise location of the feature. Varioustypes of pooling functions can be used during the pooling stage 920,including max pooling, average pooling, and l2-norm pooling.Additionally, some CNN implementations do not include a pooling stage.Instead, such implementations substitute and additional convolutionstage having an increased stride relative to previous convolutionstages.

The output from the convolutional layer 914 can then be processed by thenext layer 922. The next layer 922 can be an additional convolutionallayer or one of the fully connected layers 908. For example, the firstconvolutional layer 904 of FIG. 9A can output to the secondconvolutional layer 906, while the second convolutional layer can outputto a first layer of the fully connected layers 908.

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary recurrent neural network 1000. In arecurrent neural network (RNN), the previous state of the networkinfluences the output of the current state of the network. RNNs can bebuilt in a variety of ways using a variety of functions. The use of RNNsgenerally revolves around using mathematical models to predict thefuture based on a prior sequence of inputs. For example, an RNN may beused to perform statistical language modeling to predict an upcomingword given a previous sequence of words. The illustrated RNN 1000 can bedescribed has having an input layer 1002 that receives an input vector,hidden layers 1004 to implement a recurrent function, a feedbackmechanism 1005 to enable a ‘memory’ of previous states, and an outputlayer 1006 to output a result. The RNN 1000 operates based ontime-steps. The state of the RNN at a given time step is influencedbased on the previous time step via the feedback mechanism 1005. For agiven time step, the state of the hidden layers 1004 is defined by theprevious state and the input at the current time step. An initial input(x₁) at a first time step can be processed by the hidden layer 1004. Asecond input (x₂) can be processed by the hidden layer 1004 using stateinformation that is determined during the processing of the initialinput (x₁). A given state can be computed as s_(t)=ƒ(Ux_(t)+Ws_(t-1)),where U and W are parameter matrices. The function ƒ is generally anonlinearity, such as the hyperbolic tangent function (Tan h) or avariant of the rectifier function ƒ(x)=max(0, x). However, the specificmathematical function used in the hidden layers 1004 can vary dependingon the specific implementation details of the RNN 1000.

In addition to the basic CNN and RNN networks described, variations onthose networks may be enabled. One example RNN variant is the long shortterm memory (LSTM) RNN. LSTM RNNs are capable of learning long-termdependencies that may be necessary for processing longer sequences oflanguage. A variant on the CNN is a convolutional deep belief network,which has a structure similar to a CNN and is trained in a mannersimilar to a deep belief network. A deep belief network (DBN) is agenerative neural network that is composed of multiple layers ofstochastic (random) variables. DBNs can be trained layer-by-layer usinggreedy unsupervised learning. The learned weights of the DBN can then beused to provide pre-train neural networks by determining an optimalinitial set of weights for the neural network.

FIG. 11 illustrates training and deployment of a deep neural network.Once a given network has been structured for a task the neural networkis trained using a training dataset 1102. Various training frameworks1104 have been developed to enable hardware acceleration of the trainingprocess. For example, the machine learning framework 604 of FIG. 6 maybe configured as a training framework 604. The training framework 604can hook into an untrained neural network 1106 and enable the untrainedneural net to be trained using the parallel processing resourcesdescribed herein to generate a trained neural net 1108.

To start the training process the initial weights may be chosen randomlyor by pre-training using a deep belief network. The training cycle thenbe performed in either a supervised or unsupervised manner.

Supervised learning is a learning method in which training is performedas a mediated operation, such as when the training dataset 1102 includesinput paired with the desired output for the input, or where thetraining dataset includes input having known output and the output ofthe neural network is manually graded. The network processes the inputsand compares the resulting outputs against a set of expected or desiredoutputs. Errors are then propagated back through the system. Thetraining framework 1104 can adjust to adjust the weights that controlthe untrained neural network 1106. The training framework 1104 canprovide tools to monitor how well the untrained neural network 1106 isconverging towards a model suitable to generating correct answers basedon known input data. The training process occurs repeatedly as theweights of the network are adjusted to refine the output generated bythe neural network. The training process can continue until the neuralnetwork reaches a statistically desired accuracy associated with atrained neural net 1108. The trained neural network 1108 can then bedeployed to implement any number of machine learning operations togenerate an inference result 1114 based on input of new data 1112.

Unsupervised learning is a learning method in which the network attemptsto train itself using unlabeled data. Thus, for unsupervised learningthe training dataset 1102 will include input data without any associatedoutput data. The untrained neural network 1106 can learn groupingswithin the unlabeled input and can determine how individual inputs arerelated to the overall dataset. Unsupervised training can be used togenerate a self-organizing map, which is a type of trained neuralnetwork 1108 capable of performing operations useful in reducing thedimensionality of data. Unsupervised training can also be used toperform anomaly detection, which allows the identification of datapoints in an input dataset that deviate from the normal patterns of thedata.

Variations on supervised and unsupervised training may also be employed.Semi-supervised learning is a technique in which in the training dataset1102 includes a mix of labeled and unlabeled data of the samedistribution. Incremental learning is a variant of supervised learningin which input data is continuously used to further train the model.Incremental learning enables the trained neural network 1108 to adapt tothe new data 1112 without forgetting the knowledge instilled within thenetwork during initial training.

Whether supervised or unsupervised, the training process forparticularly deep neural networks may be too computationally intensivefor a single compute node. Instead of using a single compute node, adistributed network of computational nodes can be used to accelerate thetraining process.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating distributed learning.Distributed learning is a training model that uses multiple distributedcomputing nodes to perform supervised or unsupervised training of aneural network. The distributed computational nodes can each include oneor more host processors and one or more of the general-purposeprocessing nodes, such as the highly-parallel general-purpose graphicsprocessing unit 700 as in FIG. 700. As illustrated, distributed learningcan be performed model parallelism 1202, data parallelism 1204, or acombination of model and data parallelism 1204.

In model parallelism 1202, different computational nodes in adistributed system can perform training computations for different partsof a single network. For example, each layer of a neural network can betrained by a different processing node of the distributed system. Thebenefits of model parallelism include the ability to scale toparticularly large models. Splitting the computations associated withdifferent layers of the neural network enables the training of verylarge neural networks in which the weights of all layers would not fitinto the memory of a single computational node. In some instances, modelparallelism can be particularly useful in performing unsupervisedtraining of large neural networks.

In data parallelism 1204, the different nodes of the distributed networkhave a complete instance of the model and each node receives a differentportion of the data. The results from the different nodes are thencombined. While different approaches to data parallelism are possible,data parallel training approaches all require a technique of combiningresults and synchronizing the model parameters between each node.Exemplary approaches to combining data include parameter averaging andupdate based data parallelism. Parameter averaging trains each node on asubset of the training data and sets the global parameters (e.g.,weights, biases) to the average of the parameters from each node.Parameter averaging uses a central parameter server that maintains theparameter data. Update based data parallelism is similar to parameteraveraging except that instead of transferring parameters from the nodesto the parameter server, the updates to the model are transferred.Additionally, update based data parallelism can be performed in adecentralized manner, where the updates are compressed and transferredbetween nodes.

Combined model and data parallelism 1206 can be implemented, forexample, in a distributed system in which each computational nodeincludes multiple GPUs. Each node can have a complete instance of themodel with separate GPUs within each node are used to train differentportions of the model.

Distributed training has increased overhead relative to training on asingle machine. However, the parallel processors and GPGPUs describedherein can each implement various techniques to reduce the overhead ofdistributed training, including techniques to enable high bandwidthGPU-to-GPU data transfer and accelerated remote data synchronization.

Exemplary Machine Learning Applications

Machine learning can be applied to solve a variety of technologicalproblems, including but not limited to computer vision, autonomousdriving and navigation, speech recognition, and language processing.Computer vision has traditionally been one of the most active researchareas for machine learning applications. Applications of computer visionrange from reproducing human visual abilities, such as recognizingfaces, to creating new categories of visual abilities. For example,computer vision applications can be configured to recognize sound wavesfrom the vibrations induced in objects visible in a video. Parallelprocessor accelerated machine learning enables computer visionapplications to be trained using significantly larger training datasetthan previously feasible and enables inferencing systems to be deployedusing low power parallel processors.

Parallel processor accelerated machine learning has autonomous drivingapplications including lane and road sign recognition, obstacleavoidance, navigation, and driving control. Accelerated machine learningtechniques can be used to train driving models based on datasets thatdefine the appropriate responses to specific training input. Theparallel processors described herein can enable rapid training of theincreasingly complex neural networks used for autonomous drivingsolutions and enables the deployment of low power inferencing processorsin a mobile platform suitable for integration into autonomous vehicles.

Parallel processor accelerated deep neural networks have enabled machinelearning approaches to automatic speech recognition (ASR). ASR includesthe creation of a function that computes the most probable linguisticsequence given an input acoustic sequence. Accelerated machine learningusing deep neural networks have enabled the replacement of the hiddenMarkov models (HMMs) and Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) previously usedfor ASR.

Parallel processor accelerated machine learning can also be used toaccelerate natural language processing. Automatic learning procedurescan make use of statistical inference algorithms to produce models thatare robust to erroneous or unfamiliar input. Exemplary natural languageprocessor applications include automatic machine translation betweenhuman languages.

The parallel processing platforms used for machine learning can bedivided into training platforms and deployment platforms. Trainingplatforms are generally highly parallel and include optimizations toaccelerate multi-GPU single node training and multi-node, multi-GPUtraining. Exemplary parallel processors suited for training include thegeneral-purpose graphics processing unit 700 of FIG. 700 and themulti-GPU computing system 800 of FIG. 800. On the contrary, deployedmachine learning platforms generally include lower power parallelprocessors suitable for use in products such as cameras, autonomousrobots, and autonomous vehicles.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary inferencing system on a chip (SOC) 1300suitable for performing inferencing using a trained model. The SOC 1300can integrate processing components including a media processor 1302, avision processor 1304, a GPGPU 1306 and a multi-core processor 1308. TheSOC 1300 can additionally include on-chip memory 1305 that can enable ashared on-chip data pool that is accessible by each of the processingcomponents. The processing components can be optimized for low poweroperation to enable deployment to a variety of machine learningplatforms, including autonomous vehicles and autonomous robots. Forexample, one implementation of the SOC 1300 can be used as a portion ofthe main control system for an autonomous vehicle. Where the SOC 1300 isconfigured for use in autonomous vehicles the SOC is designed andconfigured for compliance with the relevant functional safety standardsof the deployment jurisdiction.

During operation, the media processor 1302 and vision processor 1304 canwork in concert to accelerate computer vision operations. The mediaprocessor 1302 can enable low latency decode of multiple high-resolution(e.g., 4K, 8K) video streams. The decoded video streams can be writtento a buffer in the on-chip-memory 1305. The vision processor 1304 canthen parse the decoded video and perform preliminary processingoperations on the frames of the decoded video in preparation ofprocessing the frames using a trained image recognition model. Forexample, the vision processor 1304 can accelerate convolution operationsfor a CNN that is used to perform image recognition on thehigh-resolution video data, while back end model computations areperformed by the GPGPU 1306.

The multi-core processor 1308 can include control logic to assist withsequencing and synchronization of data transfers and shared memoryoperations performed by the media processor 1302 and the visionprocessor 1304. The multi-core processor 1308 can also function as anapplication processor to execute software applications that can make useof the inferencing compute capability of the GPGPU 1306. For example, atleast a portion of the navigation and driving logic can be implementedin software executing on the multi-core processor 1308. Such softwarecan directly issue computational workloads to the GPGPU 1306 or thecomputational workloads can be issued to the multi-core processor 1308,which can offload at least a portion of those operations to the GPGPU1306.

The GPGPU 1306 can include compute clusters such as a low powerconfiguration of the compute clusters 706A-706H within general-purposegraphics processing unit 700. The compute clusters within the GPGPU 1306can support instruction that are specifically optimized to performinferencing computations on a trained neural network. For example, theGPGPU 1306 can support instructions to perform low precisioncomputations such as 8-bit and 4-bit integer vector operations.

System Overview

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of a processing system 1400, according to anembodiment. System 1400 may be used in a single processor desktopsystem, a multiprocessor workstation system, or a server system having alarge number of processors 1402 or processor cores 1407. In oneembodiment, the system 1400 is a processing platform incorporated withina system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrated circuit for use in mobile, handheld,or embedded devices such as within Internet-of-things (IoT) devices withwired or wireless connectivity to a local or wide area network.

In one embodiment, system 1400 can include, couple with, or beintegrated within: a server-based gaming platform; a game console,including a game and media console; a mobile gaming console, a handheldgame console, or an online game console. In some embodiments the system1400 is part of a mobile phone, smart phone, tablet computing device ormobile Internet-connected device such as a laptop with low internalstorage capacity. Processing system 1400 can also include, couple with,or be integrated within: a wearable device, such as a smart watchwearable device; smart eyewear or clothing enhanced with augmentedreality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) features to provide visual, audioor tactile outputs to supplement real world visual, audio or tactileexperiences or otherwise provide text, audio, graphics, video,holographic images or video, or tactile feedback; other augmentedreality (AR) device; or other virtual reality (VR) device. In someembodiments, the processing system 1400 includes or is part of atelevision or set top box device. In one embodiment, system 1400 caninclude, couple with, or be integrated within a self-driving vehiclesuch as a bus, tractor trailer, car, motor or electric power cycle,plane or glider (or any combination thereof). The self-driving vehiclemay use system 1400 to process the environment sensed around thevehicle.

In some embodiments, the one or more processors 1402 each include one ormore processor cores 1407 to process instructions which, when executed,perform operations for system or user software. In some embodiments, atleast one of the one or more processor cores 1407 is configured toprocess a specific instruction set 1409. In some embodiments,instruction set 1409 may facilitate Complex Instruction Set Computing(CISC), Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC), or computing via aVery Long Instruction Word (VLIW). One or more processor cores 1407 mayprocess a different instruction set 1409, which may include instructionsto facilitate the emulation of other instruction sets. Processor core1407 may also include other processing devices, such as a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP).

In some embodiments, the processor 1402 includes cache memory 1404.Depending on the architecture, the processor 1402 can have a singleinternal cache or multiple levels of internal cache. In someembodiments, the cache memory is shared among various components of theprocessor 1402. In some embodiments, the processor 1402 also uses anexternal cache (e.g., a Level-3 (L3) cache or Last Level Cache (LLC))(not shown), which may be shared among processor cores 1407 using knowncache coherency techniques. A register file 1406 can be additionallyincluded in processor 1402 and may include different types of registersfor storing different types of data (e.g., integer registers, floatingpoint registers, status registers, and an instruction pointer register).Some registers may be general-purpose registers, while other registersmay be specific to the design of the processor 1402.

In some embodiments, one or more processor(s) 1402 are coupled with oneor more interface bus(es) 1410 to transmit communication signals such asaddress, data, or control signals between processor 1402 and othercomponents in the system 1400. The interface bus 1410, in oneembodiment, can be a processor bus, such as a version of the DirectMedia Interface (DMI) bus. However, processor busses are not limited tothe DMI bus, and may include one or more Peripheral ComponentInterconnect buses (e.g., PCI, PCI express), memory busses, or othertypes of interface busses. In one embodiment the processor(s) 1402include an integrated memory controller 1416 and a platform controllerhub 1430. The memory controller 1416 facilitates communication between amemory device and other components of the system 1400, while theplatform controller hub (PCH) 1430 provides connections to I/O devicesvia a local I/O bus.

The memory device 1420 can be a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM)device, a static random-access memory (SRAM) device, flash memorydevice, phase-change memory device, or some other memory device havingsuitable performance to serve as process memory. In one embodiment thememory device 1420 can operate as system memory for the system 1400, tostore data 1422 and instructions 1421 for use when the one or moreprocessors 1402 executes an application or process. Memory controller1416 also couples with an optional external graphics processor 1418,which may communicate with the one or more graphics processors 1408 inprocessors 1402 to perform graphics and media operations. In someembodiments, graphics, media, and or compute operations may be assistedby an accelerator 1412 which is a coprocessor that can be configured toperform a specialized set of graphics, media, or compute operations. Forexample, in one embodiment the accelerator 1412 is a matrixmultiplication accelerator used to optimize machine learning or computeoperations. In one embodiment the accelerator 1412 is a ray-tracingaccelerator that can be used to perform ray-tracing operations inconcert with the graphics processor 1408. In one embodiment, an externalaccelerator 1419 may be used in place of or in concert with theaccelerator 1412.

In some embodiments a display device 1411 can connect to theprocessor(s) 1402. The display device 1411 can be one or more of aninternal display device, as in a mobile electronic device or a laptopdevice or an external display device attached via a display interface(e.g., DisplayPort, etc.). In one embodiment the display device 1411 canbe a head mounted display (HMD) such as a stereoscopic display devicefor use in virtual reality (VR) applications or augmented reality (AR)applications.

In some embodiments the platform controller hub 1430 enables peripheralsto connect to memory device 1420 and processor 1402 via a high-speed I/Obus. The I/O peripherals include, but are not limited to, an audiocontroller 1446, a network controller 1434, a firmware interface 1428, awireless transceiver 1426, touch sensors 1425, a data storage device1424 (e.g., non-volatile memory, volatile memory, hard disk drive, flashmemory, NAND, 3D NAND, 3D XPoint, etc.). The data storage device 1424can connect via a storage interface (e.g., SATA) or via a peripheralbus, such as a Peripheral Component Interconnect bus (e.g., PCI, PCIexpress). The touch sensors 1425 can include touch screen sensors,pressure sensors, or fingerprint sensors. The wireless transceiver 1426can be a Wi-Fi transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, or a mobile networktransceiver such as a 3G, 4G, 5G, or Long-Term Evolution (LTE)transceiver. The firmware interface 1428 enables communication withsystem firmware, and can be, for example, a unified extensible firmwareinterface (UEFI). The network controller 1434 can enable a networkconnection to a wired network. In some embodiments, a high-performancenetwork controller (not shown) couples with the interface bus 1410. Theaudio controller 1446, in one embodiment, is a multi-channel highdefinition audio controller. In one embodiment the system 1400 includesan optional legacy I/O controller 1440 for coupling legacy (e.g.,Personal System 2 (PS/2)) devices to the system. The platform controllerhub 1430 can also connect to one or more Universal Serial Bus (USB)controllers 1442 connect input devices, such as keyboard and mouse 1443combinations, a camera 1444, or other USB input devices.

It will be appreciated that the system 1400 shown is exemplary and notlimiting, as other types of data processing systems that are differentlyconfigured may also be used. For example, an instance of the memorycontroller 1416 and platform controller hub 1430 may be integrated intoa discreet external graphics processor, such as the external graphicsprocessor 1418. In one embodiment the platform controller hub 1430and/or memory controller 1416 may be external to the one or moreprocessor(s) 1402. For example, the system 1400 can include an externalmemory controller 1416 and platform controller hub 1430, which may beconfigured as a memory controller hub and peripheral controller hubwithin a system chipset that is in communication with the processor(s)1402.

For example, circuit boards (“sleds”) can be used on which componentssuch as CPUs, memory, and other components are placed are designed forincreased thermal performance. In some examples, processing componentssuch as the processors are located on a top side of a sled while nearmemory, such as DIMMs, are located on a bottom side of the sled. As aresult of the enhanced airflow provided by this design, the componentsmay operate at higher frequencies and power levels than in typicalsystems, thereby increasing performance. Furthermore, the sleds areconfigured to blindly mate with power and data communication cables in arack, thereby enhancing their ability to be quickly removed, upgraded,reinstalled, and/or replaced. Similarly, individual components locatedon the sleds, such as processors, accelerators, memory, and data storagedrives, are configured to be easily upgraded due to their increasedspacing from each other. In the illustrative embodiment, the componentsadditionally include hardware attestation features to prove theirauthenticity.

A data center can utilize a single network architecture (“fabric”) thatsupports multiple other network architectures including Ethernet andOmni-Path. The sleds can be coupled to switches via optical fibers,which provide higher bandwidth and lower latency than typical twistedpair cabling (e.g., Category 5, Category 5e, Category 6, etc.). Due tothe high bandwidth, low latency interconnections and networkarchitecture, the data center may, in use, pool resources, such asmemory, accelerators (e.g., GPUs, graphics accelerators, FPGAs, ASICs,neural network and/or artificial intelligence accelerators, etc.), anddata storage drives that are physically disaggregated, and provide themto compute resources (e.g., processors) on an as needed basis, enablingthe compute resources to access the pooled resources as if they werelocal.

A power supply or source can provide voltage and/or current to system1400 or any component or system described herein. In one example, thepower supply includes an AC to DC (alternating current to directcurrent) adapter to plug into a wall outlet. Such AC power can berenewable energy (e.g., solar power) power source. In one example, powersource includes a DC power source, such as an external AC to DCconverter. In one example, power source or power supply includeswireless charging hardware to charge via proximity to a charging field.In one example, power source can include an internal battery,alternating current supply, motion-based power supply, solar powersupply, or fuel cell source.

FIG. 15A-15C illustrate computing systems and graphics processorsprovided by embodiments described herein. The elements of FIG. 15A-15Chaving the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of anyother figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar tothat described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such.

FIG. 15A is a block diagram of an embodiment of a processor 1500 havingone or more processor cores 1502A-1502N, an integrated memory controller1514, and an integrated graphics processor 1508. Processor 1500 caninclude additional cores up to and including additional core 1502Nrepresented by the dashed lined boxes. Each of processor cores1502A-1502N includes one or more internal cache units 1504A-1504N. Insome embodiments each processor core also has access to one or moreshared cached units 1506. The internal cache units 1504A-1504N andshared cache units 1506 represent a cache memory hierarchy within theprocessor 1500. The cache memory hierarchy may include at least onelevel of instruction and data cache within each processor core and oneor more levels of shared mid-level cache, such as a Level 15 (L2), Level3 (L3), Level 4 (L4), or other levels of cache, where the highest levelof cache before external memory is classified as the LLC. In someembodiments, cache coherency logic maintains coherency between thevarious cache units 1506 and 1504A-1504N.

In some embodiments, processor 1500 may also include a set of one ormore bus controller units 1616 and a system agent core 1510. The one ormore bus controller units 1616 manage a set of peripheral buses, such asone or more PCI or PCI express busses. System agent core 1510 providesmanagement functionality for the various processor components. In someembodiments, system agent core 1510 includes one or more integratedmemory controllers 1514 to manage access to various external memorydevices (not shown).

In some embodiments, one or more of the processor cores 1502A-1502Ninclude support for simultaneous multi-threading. In such embodiment,the system agent core 1510 includes components for coordinating andoperating cores 1502A-1502N during multi-threaded processing. Systemagent core 1510 may additionally include a power control unit (PCU),which includes logic and components to regulate the power state ofprocessor cores 1502A-1502N and graphics processor 1508.

In some embodiments, processor 1500 additionally includes graphicsprocessor 1508 to execute graphics processing operations. In someembodiments, the graphics processor 1508 couples with the set of sharedcache units 1506, and the system agent core 1510, including the one ormore integrated memory controllers 1514. In some embodiments, the systemagent core 1510 also includes a display controller 1511 to drivegraphics processor output to one or more coupled displays. In someembodiments, display controller 1511 may also be a separate modulecoupled with the graphics processor via at least one interconnect, ormay be integrated within the graphics processor 1508.

In some embodiments, a ring-based interconnect unit 1512 is used tocouple the internal components of the processor 1500. However, analternative interconnect unit may be used, such as a point-to-pointinterconnect, a switched interconnect, or other techniques, includingtechniques well known in the art. In some embodiments, graphicsprocessor 1508 couples with the ring interconnect 1512 via an I/O link1513.

The exemplary I/O link 1513 represents at least one of multiplevarieties of I/O interconnects, including an on package I/O interconnectwhich facilitates communication between various processor components anda high-performance embedded memory module 1518, such as an eDRAM module.In some embodiments, each of the processor cores 1502A-1502N andgraphics processor 1508 can use embedded memory modules 1518 as a sharedLast Level Cache.

In some embodiments, processor cores 1502A-1502N are homogenous coresexecuting the same instruction set architecture. In another embodiment,processor cores 1502A-1502N are heterogeneous in terms of instructionset architecture (ISA), where one or more of processor cores 1502A-1502Nexecute a first instruction set, while at least one of the other coresexecutes a subset of the first instruction set or a differentinstruction set. In one embodiment, processor cores 1502A-1502N areheterogeneous in terms of microarchitecture, where one or more coreshaving a relatively higher power consumption couple with one or morepower cores having a lower power consumption. In one embodiment,processor cores 1502A-1502N are heterogeneous in terms of computationalcapability. Additionally, processor 1500 can be implemented on one ormore chips or as an SoC integrated circuit having the illustratedcomponents, in addition to other components.

FIG. 15B is a block diagram of hardware logic of a graphics processorcore 1519, according to some embodiments described herein. Elements ofFIG. 15B having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements ofany other figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar tothat described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. Thegraphics processor core 1519, sometimes referred to as a core slice, canbe one or multiple graphics cores within a modular graphics processor.The graphics processor core 1519 is exemplary of one graphics coreslice, and a graphics processor as described herein may include multiplegraphics core slices based on target power and performance envelopes.Each graphics processor core 1519 can include a fixed function block1530 coupled with multiple sub-cores 1521A-1521F, also referred to assub-slices, that include modular blocks of general-purpose and fixedfunction logic.

In some embodiments, the fixed function block 1530 includes ageometry/fixed function pipeline 1531 that can be shared by allsub-cores in the graphics processor core 1519, for example, in lowerperformance and/or lower power graphics processor implementations. Invarious embodiments, the geometry/fixed function pipeline 1531 includesa 3D fixed function pipeline (e.g., 3D pipeline 1612 as in FIG. 16described below) a video front-end unit, a thread spawner and threaddispatcher, and a unified return buffer manager, which manages unifiedreturn buffers (e.g., unified return buffer 1718 in FIG. 17, asdescribed below).

In one embodiment the fixed function block 1530 also includes a graphicsSoC interface 1532, a graphics microcontroller 1533, and a mediapipeline 1534. The graphics SoC interface 1532 provides an interfacebetween the graphics processor core 1519 and other processor coreswithin a system on a chip integrated circuit. The graphicsmicrocontroller 1533 is a programmable sub-processor that isconfigurable to manage various functions of the graphics processor core1519, including thread dispatch, scheduling, and pre-emption. The mediapipeline 1534 (e.g., media pipeline 1616 of FIG. 16 and FIG. 17)includes logic to facilitate the decoding, encoding, pre-processing,and/or post-processing of multimedia data, including image and videodata. The media pipeline 1534 implement media operations via requests tocompute or sampling logic within the sub-cores 1521-1521F.

In one embodiment the SoC interface 1532 enables the graphics processorcore 1519 to communicate with general-purpose application processorcores (e.g., CPUs) and/or other components within an SoC, includingmemory hierarchy elements such as a shared last level cache memory, thesystem RAM, and/or embedded on-chip or on-package DRAM. The SoCinterface 1532 can also enable communication with fixed function deviceswithin the SoC, such as camera imaging pipelines, and enables the use ofand/or implements global memory atomics that may be shared between thegraphics processor core 1519 and CPUs within the SoC. The SoC interface1532 can also implement power management controls for the graphicsprocessor core 1519 and enable an interface between a clock domain ofthe graphic core 1519 and other clock domains within the SoC. In oneembodiment the SoC interface 1532 enables receipt of command buffersfrom a command streamer and global thread dispatcher that are configuredto provide commands and instructions to each of one or more graphicscores within a graphics processor. The commands and instructions can bedispatched to the media pipeline 1534, when media operations are to beperformed, or a geometry and fixed function pipeline (e.g., geometry andfixed function pipeline 1531, geometry and fixed function pipeline 1537)when graphics processing operations are to be performed.

The graphics microcontroller 1533 can be configured to perform variousscheduling and management tasks for the graphics processor core 1519. Inone embodiment the graphics microcontroller 1533 can perform graphicsand/or compute workload scheduling on the various graphics parallelengines within execution unit (EU) arrays 1522A-1522F, 1524A-1524Fwithin the sub-cores 1521A-1521F. In this scheduling model, hostsoftware executing on a CPU core of an SoC including the graphicsprocessor core 1519 can submit workloads one of multiple graphicprocessor doorbells, which invokes a scheduling operation on theappropriate graphics engine. Scheduling operations include determiningwhich workload to run next, submitting a workload to a command streamer,pre-empting existing workloads running on an engine, monitoring progressof a workload, and notifying host software when a workload is complete.In one embodiment the graphics microcontroller 1533 can also facilitatelow-power or idle states for the graphics processor core 1519, providingthe graphics processor core 1519 with the ability to save and restoreregisters within the graphics processor core 1519 across low-power statetransitions independently from the operating system and/or graphicsdriver software on the system.

The graphics processor core 1519 may have greater than or fewer than theillustrated sub-cores 1521A-1521F, up to N modular sub-cores. For eachset of N sub-cores, the graphics processor core 1519 can also includeshared function logic 1535, shared and/or cache memory 1536, ageometry/fixed function pipeline 1537, as well as additional fixedfunction logic 1538 to accelerate various graphics and computeprocessing operations. The shared function logic 1535 can include logicunits associated with the shared function logic 1720 of FIG. 17 (e.g.,sampler, math, and/or inter-thread communication logic) that can beshared by each N sub-cores within the graphics processor core 1519. Theshared and/or cache memory 1536 can be a last-level cache for the set ofN sub-cores 1521A-1521F within the graphics processor core 1519, and canalso serve as shared memory that is accessible by multiple sub-cores.The geometry/fixed function pipeline 1537 can be included instead of thegeometry/fixed function pipeline 1531 within the fixed function block1530 and can include the same or similar logic units.

In one embodiment the graphics processor core 1519 includes additionalfixed function logic 1538 that can include various fixed functionacceleration logic for use by the graphics processor core 1519. In oneembodiment the additional fixed function logic 1538 includes anadditional geometry pipeline for use in position only shading. Inposition-only shading, two geometry pipelines exist, the full geometrypipeline within the geometry/fixed function pipeline 1538, 1531, and acull pipeline, which is an additional geometry pipeline which may beincluded within the additional fixed function logic 1538. In oneembodiment the cull pipeline is a trimmed down version of the fullgeometry pipeline. The full pipeline and the cull pipeline can executedifferent instances of the same application, each instance having aseparate context. Position only shading can hide long cull runs ofdiscarded triangles, enabling shading to be completed earlier in someinstances. For example and in one embodiment the cull pipeline logicwithin the additional fixed function logic 1538 can execute positionshaders in parallel with the main application and generally generatescritical results faster than the full pipeline, as the cull pipelinefetches and shades only the position attribute of the vertices, withoutperforming rasterization and rendering of the pixels to the framebuffer. The cull pipeline can use the generated critical results tocompute visibility information for all the triangles without regard towhether those triangles are culled. The full pipeline (which in thisinstance may be referred to as a replay pipeline) can consume thevisibility information to skip the culled triangles to shade only thevisible triangles that are finally passed to the rasterization phase.

In one embodiment the additional fixed function logic 1538 can alsoinclude machine-learning acceleration logic, such as fixed functionmatrix multiplication logic, for implementations including optimizationsfor machine learning training or inferencing.

Within each graphics sub-core 1521A-1521F includes a set of executionresources that may be used to perform graphics, media, and computeoperations in response to requests by graphics pipeline, media pipeline,or shader programs. The graphics sub-cores 1521A-1521F include multipleEU arrays 1522A-1522F, 1524A-1524F, thread dispatch and inter-threadcommunication (TD/IC) logic 1523A-1523F, a 3D (e.g., texture) sampler1525A-1525F, a media sampler 1506A-1506F, a shader processor1527A-1527F, and shared local memory (SLM) 1528A-1528F. The EU arrays1522A-1522F, 1524A-1524F each include multiple execution units, whichare general-purpose graphics processing units capable of performingfloating-point and integer/fixed-point logic operations in service of agraphics, media, or compute operation, including graphics, media, orcompute shader programs. The TD/IC logic 1523A-1523F performs localthread dispatch and thread control operations for the execution unitswithin a sub-core and facilitate communication between threads executingon the execution units of the sub-core. The 3D sampler 1525A-1525F canread texture or other 3D graphics related data into memory. The 3Dsampler can read texture data differently based on a configured samplestate and the texture format associated with a given texture. The mediasampler 1506A-1506F can perform similar read operations based on thetype and format associated with media data. In one embodiment, eachgraphics sub-core 1521A-1521F can alternately include a unified 3D andmedia sampler. Threads executing on the execution units within each ofthe sub-cores 1521A-1521F can make use of shared local memory1528A-1528F within each sub-core, to enable threads executing within athread group to execute using a common pool of on-chip memory.

FIG. 15C is a block diagram of general purpose graphics processing unit(GPGPU) 1570 that can be configured as a graphics processor and/orcompute accelerator, according to embodiments described herein. TheGPGPU 1570 can interconnect with host processors (e.g., one or moreCPU(s) 1546) and memory 1571, 1572 via one or more system and/or memorybusses. In one embodiment the memory 1571 is system memory that may beshared with the one or more CPU(s) 1546, while memory 1572 is devicememory that is dedicated to the GPGPU 1570. In one embodiment,components within the GPGPU 1570 and device memory 1572 may be mappedinto memory addresses that are accessible to the one or more CPU(s)1546. Access to memory 1571 and 1572 may be facilitated via a memorycontroller 1568. In one embodiment the memory controller 1568 includesan internal direct memory access (DMA) controller 1569 or can includelogic to perform operations that would otherwise be performed by a DMAcontroller.

The GPGPU 1570 includes multiple cache memories, including an L2 cache1553, L1 cache 1554, an instruction cache 1555, and shared memory 1556,at least a portion of which may also be partitioned as a cache memory.The GPGPU 1570 also includes multiple compute units 1560A-1560N. Eachcompute unit 1560A-1560N includes a set of vector registers 1561, scalarregisters 1562, vector logic units 1563, and scalar logic units 1564.The compute units 1560A-1560N can also include local shared memory 1565and a program counter 1566. The compute units 1560A-1560N can couplewith a constant cache 1567, which can be used to store constant data,which is data that will not change during the run of kernel or shaderprogram that executes on the GPGPU 1570. In one embodiment the constantcache 1567 is a scalar data cache and cached data can be fetcheddirectly into the scalar registers 1562.

During operation, the one or more CPU(s) 1546 can write commands intoregisters or memory in the GPGPU 1570 that has been mapped into anaccessible address space. The command processors 1557 can read thecommands from registers or memory and determine how those commands willbe processed within the GPGPU 1570. A thread dispatcher 1558 can then beused to dispatch threads to the compute units 1560A-1560N to performthose commands. Each compute unit 1560A-1560N can execute threadsindependently of the other compute units. Additionally each compute unit1560A-1560N can be independently configured for conditional computationand can conditionally output the results of computation to memory. Thecommand processors 1557 can interrupt the one or more CPU(s) 1546 whenthe submitted commands are complete.

FIG. 16A-16C illustrate block diagrams of additional graphics processorand compute accelerator architectures provided by embodiments describedherein. The elements of FIG. 16A-16C having the same reference numbers(or names) as the elements of any other figure herein can operate orfunction in any manner similar to that described elsewhere herein, butare not limited to such.

FIG. 16A is a block diagram of a graphics processor 1600, which may be adiscrete graphics processing unit, or may be a graphics processorintegrated with a plurality of processing cores, or other semiconductordevices such as, but not limited to, memory devices or networkinterfaces. In some embodiments, the graphics processor communicates viaa memory mapped I/O interface to registers on the graphics processor andwith commands placed into the processor memory. In some embodiments,graphics processor 1600 includes a memory interface 1614 to accessmemory. Memory interface 1614 can be an interface to local memory, oneor more internal caches, one or more shared external caches, and/or tosystem memory.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 1600 also includes a displaycontroller 1602 to drive display output data to a display device 1618.Display controller 1602 includes hardware for one or more overlay planesfor the display and composition of multiple layers of video or userinterface elements. The display device 1618 can be an internal orexternal display device. In one embodiment the display device 1618 is ahead mounted display device, such as a virtual reality (VR) displaydevice or an augmented reality (AR) display device. In some embodiments,graphics processor 1600 includes a video codec engine 1606 to encode,decode, or transcode media to, from, or between one or more mediaencoding formats, including, but not limited to Moving Picture ExpertsGroup (MPEG) formats such as MPEG-2, Advanced Video Coding (AVC) formatssuch as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.265/HEVC, Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia)VP8, VP9, as well as the Society of Motion Picture & TelevisionEngineers (SMPTE) 421M/VC-1, and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)formats such as JPEG, and Motion JPEG (MJPEG) formats.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 1600 includes a block imagetransfer (BLIT) engine 1604 to perform two-dimensional (2D) rasterizeroperations including, for example, bit-boundary block transfers.However, in one embodiment, 2D graphics operations are performed usingone or more components of graphics processing engine (GPE) 1610. In someembodiments, GPE 1610 is a compute engine for performing graphicsoperations, including three-dimensional (3D) graphics operations andmedia operations.

In some embodiments, GPE 1610 includes a 16D pipeline 1612 forperforming 16D operations, such as rendering three-dimensional imagesand scenes using processing functions that act upon 16D primitive shapes(e.g., rectangle, triangle, etc.). The 16D pipeline 1612 includesprogrammable and fixed function elements that perform various taskswithin the element and/or spawn execution threads to a 3D/Mediasub-system 1615. While 3D pipeline 1612 can be used to perform mediaoperations, an embodiment of GPE 1610 also includes a media pipeline1616 that is specifically used to perform media operations, such asvideo post-processing and image enhancement.

In some embodiments, media pipeline 1616 includes fixed function orprogrammable logic units to perform one or more specialized mediaoperations, such as video decode acceleration, video de-interlacing, andvideo encode acceleration in place of, or on behalf of video codecengine 1606. In some embodiments, media pipeline 1616 additionallyincludes a thread spawning unit to spawn threads for execution on3D/Media sub-system 1615. The spawned threads perform computations forthe media operations on one or more graphics execution units included in3D/Media sub-system 1615.

In some embodiments, 3D/Media subsystem 1615 includes logic forexecuting threads spawned by 3D pipeline 1612 and media pipeline 1616.In one embodiment, the pipelines send thread execution requests to3D/Media subsystem 1615, which includes thread dispatch logic forarbitrating and dispatching the various requests to available threadexecution resources. The execution resources include an array ofgraphics execution units to process the 3D and media threads. In someembodiments, 3D/Media subsystem 1615 includes one or more internalcaches for thread instructions and data. In some embodiments, thesubsystem also includes shared memory, including registers andaddressable memory, to share data between threads and to store outputdata.

FIG. 16B illustrates a graphics processor 1620 having a tiledarchitecture, according to embodiments described herein. In oneembodiment the graphics processor 1620 includes a graphics processingengine cluster 1622 having multiple instances of the graphics processingengine 1610 of FIG. 16A within a graphics engine tile 1610A-1610D. Eachgraphics engine tile 1610A-1610D can be interconnected via a set of tileinterconnects 1623A-1623F. Each graphics engine tile 1610A-1610D canalso be connected to a memory module or memory device 1626A-1626D viamemory interconnects 1625A-1625D. The memory devices 1626A-1626D can useany graphics memory technology. For example, the memory devices1626A-1626D may be graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory. The memorydevices 1626A-1626D, in one embodiment, are high-bandwidth memory (HBM)modules that can be on-die with their respective graphics engine tile1610A-1610D. In one embodiment the memory devices 1626A-1626D arestacked memory devices that can be stacked on top of their respectivegraphics engine tile 1610A-1610D. In one embodiment, each graphicsengine tile 1610A-1610D and associated memory 1626A-1626D reside onseparate chiplets, which are bonded to a base die or base substrate, asdescribed on further detail in FIG. 24B-24D.

The graphics processing engine cluster 1622 can connect with an on-chipor on-package fabric interconnect 1624. The fabric interconnect 1624 canenable communication between graphics engine tiles 1610A-1610D andcomponents such as the video codec 1606 and one or more copy engines1604. The copy engines 1604 can be used to move data out of, into, andbetween the memory devices 1626A-1626D and memory that is external tothe graphics processor 1620 (e.g., system memory). The fabricinterconnect 1624 can also be used to interconnect the graphics enginetiles 1610A-1610D. The graphics processor 1620 may optionally include adisplay controller 1602 to enable a connection with a display device1618 external display device 1618. The graphics processor may also beconfigured as a graphics or compute accelerator. In the acceleratorconfiguration, the display controller 1602 and display device 1618 maybe omitted.

The graphics processor 1620 can connect to a host system via a hostinterface 1628. The host interface 1628 can enable communication betweenthe graphics processor 1620, system memory, and/or other systemcomponents. The host interface 1628 can be, for example a PCI expressbus or another type of host system interface.

FIG. 16C illustrates a compute accelerator 1630, according toembodiments described herein. The compute accelerator 1630 can includearchitectural similarities with the graphics processor 1620 of FIG. 16Band is optimized for compute acceleration. A compute engine cluster 1632can include a set of compute engine tiles 1640A-1640D that includeexecution logic that is optimized for parallel or vector-basedgeneral-purpose compute operations. In some embodiments, the computeengine tiles 1640A-1640D do not include fixed function graphicsprocessing logic, although in one embodiment one or more of the computeengine tiles 1640A-1640D can include logic to perform mediaacceleration. The compute engine tiles 1640A-1640D can connect to memory1626A-1626D via memory interconnects 1625A-1625D. The memory 1626A-1626Dand memory interconnects 1625A-1625D may be similar technology as ingraphics processor 1620, or can be different. The graphics computeengine tiles 1640A-1640D can also be interconnected via a set of tileinterconnects 1623A-1623F and may be connected with and/orinterconnected by a fabric interconnect 1624. In one embodiment thecompute accelerator 1630 includes a large L3 cache 1636 that can beconfigured as a device-wide cache. The compute accelerator 1630 can alsoconnect to a host processor and memory via a host interface 1628 in asimilar manner as the graphics processor 1620 of FIG. 16B.

Graphics Processing Engine

FIG. 17 is a block diagram of a graphics processing engine 1710 of agraphics processor in accordance with some embodiments. In oneembodiment, the graphics processing engine (GPE) 1710 is a version ofthe GPE 1510 shown in FIG. 15A, and may also represent a graphics enginetile 1510A-1510D of FIG. 15B. Elements of FIG. 17 having the samereference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure hereincan operate or function in any manner similar to that describedelsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. For example, the 3Dpipeline 1612 and media pipeline 1616 of FIG. 15A are illustrated. Themedia pipeline 1616 is optional in some embodiments of the GPE 1710 andmay not be explicitly included within the GPE 1710. For example and inat least one embodiment, a separate media and/or image processor iscoupled to the GPE 1710.

In some embodiments, GPE 1710 couples with or includes a commandstreamer 1703, which provides a command stream to the 3D pipeline 1612and/or media pipelines 1616. In some embodiments, command streamer 1703is coupled with memory, which can be system memory, or one or more ofinternal cache memory and shared cache memory. In some embodiments,command streamer 1703 receives commands from the memory and sends thecommands to 3D pipeline 1612 and/or media pipeline 1616. The commandsare directives fetched from a ring buffer, which stores commands for the3D pipeline 1612 and media pipeline 1616. In one embodiment, the ringbuffer can additionally include batch command buffers storing batches ofmultiple commands. The commands for the 3D pipeline 1612 can alsoinclude references to data stored in memory, such as but not limited tovertex and geometry data for the 3D pipeline 1612 and/or image data andmemory objects for the media pipeline 316. The 3D pipeline 1612 andmedia pipeline 1616 process the commands and data by performingoperations via logic within the respective pipelines or by dispatchingone or more execution threads to a graphics core array 1714. In oneembodiment the graphics core array 1714 include one or more blocks ofgraphics cores (e.g., graphics core(s) 1715A, graphics core(s) 1715B),each block including one or more graphics cores. Each graphics coreincludes a set of graphics execution resources that includesgeneral-purpose and graphics specific execution logic to performgraphics and compute operations, as well as fixed function textureprocessing and/or machine learning and artificial intelligenceacceleration logic.

In various embodiments the 3D pipeline 1612 can include fixed functionand programmable logic to process one or more shader programs, such asvertex shaders, geometry shaders, pixel shaders, fragment shaders,compute shaders, or other shader programs, by processing theinstructions and dispatching execution threads to the graphics corearray 1714. The graphics core array 1714 provides a unified block ofexecution resources for use in processing these shader programs.Multi-purpose execution logic (e.g., execution units) within thegraphics core(s) 1715A-1714B of the graphic core array 1714 includessupport for various 3D API shader languages and can execute multiplesimultaneous execution threads associated with multiple shaders.

In some embodiments, the graphics core array 1714 includes executionlogic to perform media functions, such as video and/or image processing.In one embodiment, the execution units include general-purpose logicthat is programmable to perform parallel general-purpose computationaloperations, in addition to graphics processing operations. Thegeneral-purpose logic can perform processing operations in parallel orin conjunction with general-purpose logic within the processor core(s)1407 of FIG. 14 or core 1502A-1502N as in FIG. 15A.

Output data generated by threads executing on the graphics core array1714 can output data to memory in a unified return buffer (URB) 1718.The URB 1718 can store data for multiple threads. In some embodimentsthe URB 1718 may be used to send data between different threadsexecuting on the graphics core array 1714. In some embodiments the URB1718 may additionally be used for synchronization between threads on thegraphics core array and fixed function logic within the shared functionlogic 1720.

In some embodiments, graphics core array 1714 is scalable, such that thearray includes a variable number of graphics cores, each having avariable number of execution units based on the target power andperformance level of GPE 1710. In one embodiment the execution resourcesare dynamically scalable, such that execution resources may be enabledor disabled as needed.

The graphics core array 1714 couples with shared function logic 1720that includes multiple resources that are shared between the graphicscores in the graphics core array. The shared functions within the sharedfunction logic 1720 are hardware logic units that provide specializedsupplemental functionality to the graphics core array 1714. In variousembodiments, shared function logic 1720 includes but is not limited tosampler 1721, math 1722, and inter-thread communication (ITC) 1723logic. Additionally, some embodiments implement one or more cache(s)1725 within the shared function logic 1720.

A shared function is implemented at least in a case where the demand fora given specialized function is insufficient for inclusion within thegraphics core array 1714. Instead a single instantiation of thatspecialized function is implemented as a stand-alone entity in theshared function logic 1720 and shared among the execution resourceswithin the graphics core array 1714. The precise set of functions thatare shared between the graphics core array 1714 and included within thegraphics core array 1714 varies across embodiments. In some embodiments,specific shared functions within the shared function logic 1720 that areused extensively by the graphics core array 1714 may be included withinshared function logic 1716 within the graphics core array 1714. Invarious embodiments, the shared function logic 1716 within the graphicscore array 1714 can include some or all logic within the shared functionlogic 1720. In one embodiment, all logic elements within the sharedfunction logic 1720 may be duplicated within the shared function logic1716 of the graphics core array 1714. In one embodiment the sharedfunction logic 1720 is excluded in favor of the shared function logic1716 within the graphics core array 1714.

Execution Units

FIG. 18A-18B illustrate thread execution logic 1800 including an arrayof processing elements employed in a graphics processor core accordingto embodiments described herein. Elements of FIG. 18A-18B having thesame reference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figureherein can operate or function in any manner similar to that describedelsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. FIG. 18A-18B illustratesan overview of thread execution logic 1800, which may be representativeof hardware logic illustrated with each sub-core 221A-221F of FIG. 2B.FIG. 18A is representative of an execution unit within a general-purposegraphics processor, while FIG. 18B is representative of an executionunit that may be used within a compute accelerator.

As illustrated in FIG. 18A, in some embodiments thread execution logic1800 includes a shader processor 1802, a thread dispatcher 1804,instruction cache 1806, a scalable execution unit array including aplurality of execution units 1808A-1808N, a sampler 1810, shared localmemory 1811, a data cache 1812, and a data port 1814. In one embodimentthe scalable execution unit array can dynamically scale by enabling ordisabling one or more execution units (e.g., any of execution units1808A, 1808B, 1808C, 1808D, through 1808N-1 and 1808N) based on thecomputational requirements of a workload. In one embodiment the includedcomponents are interconnected via an interconnect fabric that links toeach of the components. In some embodiments, thread execution logic 1800includes one or more connections to memory, such as system memory orcache memory, through one or more of instruction cache 1806, data port1814, sampler 1810, and execution units 1808A-1808N. In someembodiments, each execution unit (e.g. 1808A) is a stand-aloneprogrammable general-purpose computational unit that is capable ofexecuting multiple simultaneous hardware threads while processingmultiple data elements in parallel for each thread. In variousembodiments, the array of execution units 1808A-1808N is scalable toinclude any number individual execution units.

In some embodiments, the execution units 1808A-1808N are primarily usedto execute shader programs. A shader processor 1802 can process thevarious shader programs and dispatch execution threads associated withthe shader programs via a thread dispatcher 1804. In one embodiment thethread dispatcher includes logic to arbitrate thread initiation requestsfrom the graphics and media pipelines and instantiate the requestedthreads on one or more execution unit in the execution units1808A-1808N. For example, a geometry pipeline can dispatch vertex,tessellation, or geometry shaders to the thread execution logic forprocessing. In some embodiments, thread dispatcher 1804 can also processruntime thread spawning requests from the executing shader programs.

In some embodiments, the execution units 1808A-1808N support aninstruction set that includes native support for many standard 3Dgraphics shader instructions, such that shader programs from graphicslibraries (e.g., Direct 3D and OpenGL) are executed with a minimaltranslation. The execution units support vertex and geometry processing(e.g., vertex programs, geometry programs, vertex shaders), pixelprocessing (e.g., pixel shaders, fragment shaders) and general-purposeprocessing (e.g., compute and media shaders). Each of the executionunits 1808A-1808N is capable of multi-issue single instruction multipledata (SIMD) execution and multi-threaded operation enables an efficientexecution environment in the face of higher latency memory accesses.Each hardware thread within each execution unit has a dedicatedhigh-bandwidth register file and associated independent thread-state.Execution is multi-issue per clock to pipelines capable of integer,single and double precision floating point operations, SIMD branchcapability, logical operations, transcendental operations, and othermiscellaneous operations. While waiting for data from memory or one ofthe shared functions, dependency logic within the execution units1808A-1808N causes a waiting thread to sleep until the requested datahas been returned. While the waiting thread is sleeping, hardwareresources may be devoted to processing other threads. For example,during a delay associated with a vertex shader operation, an executionunit can perform operations for a pixel shader, fragment shader, oranother type of shader program, including a different vertex shader.Various embodiments can apply to use execution by use of SingleInstruction Multiple Thread (SIMT) as an alternate to use of SIMD or inaddition to use of SIMD. Reference to a SIMD core or operation can applyalso to SIMT or apply to SIMD in combination with SIMT.

Each execution unit in execution units 1808A-1808N operates on arrays ofdata elements. The number of data elements is the “execution size,” orthe number of channels for the instruction. An execution channel is alogical unit of execution for data element access, masking, and flowcontrol within instructions. The number of channels may be independentof the number of physical Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) or FloatingPoint Units (FPUs) for a particular graphics processor. In someembodiments, execution units 1808A-1808N support integer andfloating-point data types.

The execution unit instruction set includes SIMD instructions. Thevarious data elements can be stored as a packed data type in a registerand the execution unit will process the various elements based on thedata size of the elements. For example, when operating on a 256-bit widevector, the 256 bits of the vector are stored in a register and theexecution unit operates on the vector as four separate 184-bit packeddata elements (Quad-Word (QW) size data elements), eight separate 32-bitpacked data elements (Double Word (DW) size data elements), sixteenseparate 16-bit packed data elements (Word (W) size data elements), orthirty-two separate 8-bit data elements (byte (B) size data elements).However, different vector widths and register sizes are possible.

In one embodiment one or more execution units can be combined into afused execution unit 1809A-1809N having thread control logic(1807A-1807N) that is common to the fused EUs. Multiple EUs can be fusedinto an EU group. Each EU in the fused EU group can be configured toexecute a separate SIMD hardware thread. The number of EUs in a fused EUgroup can vary according to embodiments. Additionally, various SIMDwidths can be performed per-EU, including but not limited to SIMD8,SIMD16, and SIMD32. Each fused graphics execution unit 1809A-1809Nincludes at least two execution units. For example, fused execution unit1809A includes a first EU 1808A, second EU 1808B, and thread controllogic 1807A that is common to the first EU 1808A and the second EU1808B. The thread control logic 1807A controls threads executed on thefused graphics execution unit 1809A, allowing each EU within the fusedexecution units 1809A-1809N to execute using a common instructionpointer register.

One or more internal instruction caches (e.g., 1806) are included in thethread execution logic 1800 to cache thread instructions for theexecution units. In some embodiments, one or more data caches (e.g.,1812) are included to cache thread data during thread execution. Threadsexecuting on the execution logic 1800 can also store explicitly manageddata in the shared local memory 1811. In some embodiments, a sampler1810 is included to provide texture sampling for 3D operations and mediasampling for media operations. In some embodiments, sampler 1810includes specialized texture or media sampling functionality to processtexture or media data during the sampling process before providing thesampled data to an execution unit.

During execution, the graphics and media pipelines send threadinitiation requests to thread execution logic 1800 via thread spawningand dispatch logic. Once a group of geometric objects has been processedand rasterized into pixel data, pixel processor logic (e.g., pixelshader logic, fragment shader logic, etc.) within the shader processor1802 is invoked to further compute output information and cause resultsto be written to output surfaces (e.g., color buffers, depth buffers,stencil buffers, etc.). In some embodiments, a pixel shader or fragmentshader calculates the values of the various vertex attributes that areto be interpolated across the rasterized object. In some embodiments,pixel processor logic within the shader processor 1802 then executes anapplication programming interface (API)-supplied pixel or fragmentshader program. To execute the shader program, the shader processor 1802dispatches threads to an execution unit (e.g., 1808A) via threaddispatcher 1804. In some embodiments, shader processor 1802 uses texturesampling logic in the sampler 1810 to access texture data in texturemaps stored in memory. Arithmetic operations on the texture data and theinput geometry data compute pixel color data for each geometricfragment, or discards one or more pixels from further processing.

In some embodiments, the data port 1814 provides a memory accessmechanism for the thread execution logic 1800 to output processed datato memory for further processing on a graphics processor outputpipeline. In some embodiments, the data port 1814 includes or couples toone or more cache memories (e.g., data cache 1812) to cache data formemory access via the data port.

In one embodiment, the execution logic 1800 can also include a raytracer 1805 that can provide ray tracing acceleration functionality. Theray tracer 1805 can support a ray tracing instruction set that includesinstructions/functions for ray generation. The ray tracing instructionset can be similar to or different from the ray-tracing instruction setsupported by the ray tracing cores 245 in FIG. 2C.

FIG. 18B illustrates exemplary internal details of an execution unit1808, according to embodiments. A graphics execution unit 1808 caninclude an instruction fetch unit 1837, a general register file array(GRF) 1824, an architectural register file array (ARF) 1826, a threadarbiter 1822, a send unit 1830, a branch unit 1832, a set of SIMDfloating point units (FPUs) 1834, and in one embodiment a set ofdedicated integer SIMD ALUs 1835. The GRF 1824 and ARF 1826 includes theset of general register files and architecture register files associatedwith each simultaneous hardware thread that may be active in thegraphics execution unit 1808. In one embodiment, per threadarchitectural state is maintained in the ARF 1826, while data usedduring thread execution is stored in the GRF 1824. The execution stateof each thread, including the instruction pointers for each thread, canbe held in thread-specific registers in the ARF 1826.

In one embodiment the graphics execution unit 1808 has an architecturethat is a combination of Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) andfine-grained Interleaved Multi-Threading (IMT). The architecture has amodular configuration that can be fine-tuned at design time based on atarget number of simultaneous threads and number of registers perexecution unit, where execution unit resources are divided across logicused to execute multiple simultaneous threads. The number of logicalthreads that may be executed by the graphics execution unit 1808 is notlimited to the number of hardware threads, and multiple logical threadscan be assigned to each hardware thread.

In one embodiment, the graphics execution unit 1808 can co-issuemultiple instructions, which may each be different instructions. Thethread arbiter 1822 of the graphics execution unit thread 1808 candispatch the instructions to one of the send unit 1830, branch unit1832, or SIMD FPU(s) 1834 for execution. Each execution thread canaccess 128 general-purpose registers within the GRF 1824, where eachregister can store 32 bytes, accessible as a SIMD 8-element vector of32-bit data elements. In one embodiment, each execution unit thread hasaccess to 4 Kbytes within the GRF 1824, although embodiments are not solimited, and greater or fewer register resources may be provided inother embodiments. In one embodiment the graphics execution unit 1808 ispartitioned into seven hardware threads that can independently performcomputational operations, although the number of threads per executionunit can also vary according to embodiments. For example, in oneembodiment up to 16 hardware threads are supported. In an embodiment inwhich seven threads may access 4 Kbytes, the GRF 1824 can store a totalof 28 Kbytes. Where 16 threads may access 4 Kbytes, the GRF 1824 canstore a total of 64 Kbytes. Flexible addressing modes can permitregisters to be addressed together to build effectively wider registersor to represent strided rectangular block data structures.

In one embodiment, memory operations, sampler operations, and otherlonger-latency system communications are dispatched via “send”instructions that are executed by the message passing send unit 1830. Inone embodiment, branch instructions are dispatched to a dedicated branchunit 1832 to facilitate SIMD divergence and eventual convergence.

In one embodiment the graphics execution unit 1808 includes one or moreSIMD floating point units (FPU(s)) 1834 to perform floating-pointoperations. In one embodiment, the FPU(s) 1834 also support integercomputation. In one embodiment the FPU(s) 1834 can SIMD execute up to Mnumber of 32-bit floating-point (or integer) operations, or SIMD executeup to 2M 16-bit integer or 16-bit floating-point operations. In oneembodiment, at least one of the FPU(s) provides extended math capabilityto support high-throughput transcendental math functions and doubleprecision 184-bit floating-point. In some embodiments, a set of 8-bitinteger SIMD ALUs 1835 are also present, and may be specificallyoptimized to perform operations associated with machine learningcomputations.

In one embodiment, arrays of multiple instances of the graphicsexecution unit 1808 can be instantiated in a graphics sub-core grouping(e.g., a sub-slice). For scalability, product architects can choose theexact number of execution units per sub-core grouping. In one embodimentthe execution unit 1808 can execute instructions across a plurality ofexecution channels. In a further embodiment, each thread executed on thegraphics execution unit 1808 is executed on a different channel.

FIG. 19 illustrates an additional execution unit 1900, according to anembodiment. The execution unit 1900 may be a compute-optimized executionunit for use in, for example, a compute engine tile 1540A-1540D as inFIG. 15C, but is not limited as such. Variants of the execution unit1900 may also be used in a graphics engine tile 1510A-1510D as in FIG.15B. In one embodiment, the execution unit 1900 includes a threadcontrol unit 1901, a thread state unit 1902, an instructionfetch/prefetch unit 1903, and an instruction decode unit 1904. Theexecution unit 1900 additionally includes a register file 1906 thatstores registers that can be assigned to hardware threads within theexecution unit. The execution unit 1900 additionally includes a sendunit 1907 and a branch unit 1908. In one embodiment, the send unit 1907and branch unit 1908 can operate similarly as the send unit 1830 and abranch unit 1832 of the graphics execution unit 1808 of FIG. 18B.

The execution unit 1900 also includes a compute unit 1910 that includesmultiple different types of functional units. In one embodiment thecompute unit 1910 includes an ALU unit 1911 that includes an array ofarithmetic logic units. The ALU unit 1911 can be configured to perform64-bit, 32-bit, and 16-bit integer and floating point operations.Integer and floating point operations may be performed simultaneously.The compute unit 1910 can also include a systolic array 1912, and a mathunit 1913. The systolic array 1912 includes a W wide and D deep networkof data processing units that can be used to perform vector or otherdata-parallel operations in a systolic manner. In one embodiment thesystolic array 1912 can be configured to perform matrix operations, suchas matrix dot product operations. In one embodiment the systolic array1912 support 16-bit floating point operations, as well as 8-bit and4-bit integer operations. In one embodiment the systolic array 1912 canbe configured to accelerate machine learning operations. In suchembodiments, the systolic array 1912 can be configured with support forthe bfloat 16-bit floating point format. In one embodiment, a math unit1913 can be included to perform a specific subset of mathematicaloperations in an efficient and lower-power manner than then ALU unit1911. The math unit 1913 can include a variant of math logic that may befound in shared function logic of a graphics processing engine providedby other embodiments (e.g., math logic 1722 of the shared function logic1720 of FIG. 17). In one embodiment the math unit 1913 can be configuredto perform 32-bit and 64-bit floating point operations.

The thread control unit 1901 includes logic to control the execution ofthreads within the execution unit. The thread control unit 1901 caninclude thread arbitration logic to start, stop, and preempt executionof threads within the execution unit 1900. The thread state unit 1902can be used to store thread state for threads assigned to execute on theexecution unit 1900. Storing the thread state within the execution unit1900 enables the rapid pre-emption of threads when those threads becomeblocked or idle. The instruction fetch/prefetch unit 1903 can fetchinstructions from an instruction cache of higher level execution logic(e.g., instruction cache 1806 as in FIG. 18A). The instructionfetch/prefetch unit 1903 can also issue prefetch requests forinstructions to be loaded into the instruction cache based on ananalysis of currently executing threads. The instruction decode unit1904 can be used to decode instructions to be executed by the computeunits. In one embodiment, the instruction decode unit 1904 can be usedas a secondary decoder to decode complex instructions into constituentmicro-operations.

The execution unit 1900 additionally includes a register file 1906 thatcan be used by hardware threads executing on the execution unit 1900.Registers in the register file 1906 can be divided across the logic usedto execute multiple simultaneous threads within the compute unit 1910 ofthe execution unit 1900. The number of logical threads that may beexecuted by the graphics execution unit 1900 is not limited to thenumber of hardware threads, and multiple logical threads can be assignedto each hardware thread. The size of the register file 1906 can varyacross embodiments based on the number of supported hardware threads. Inone embodiment, register renaming may be used to dynamically allocateregisters to hardware threads.

FIG. 20 is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor instructionformats 2000 according to some embodiments. In one or more embodiment,the graphics processor execution units support an instruction set havinginstructions in multiple formats. The solid lined boxes illustrate thecomponents that are generally included in an execution unit instruction,while the dashed lines include components that are optional or that areonly included in a sub-set of the instructions. In some embodiments,instruction format 2000 described and illustrated aremacro-instructions, in that they are instructions supplied to theexecution unit, as opposed to micro-operations resulting frominstruction decode once the instruction is processed.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor execution units nativelysupport instructions in a 128-bit instruction format 2010. A 64-bitcompacted instruction format 2030 is available for some instructionsbased on the selected instruction, instruction options, and number ofoperands. The native 128-bit instruction format 2010 provides access toall instruction options, while some options and operations arerestricted in the 64-bit format 2030. The native instructions availablein the 64-bit format 2030 vary by embodiment. In some embodiments, theinstruction is compacted in part using a set of index values in an indexfield 2013. The execution unit hardware references a set of compactiontables based on the index values and uses the compaction table outputsto reconstruct a native instruction in the 128-bit instruction format2010. Other sizes and formats of instruction can be used.

For each format, instruction opcode 2012 defines the operation that theexecution unit is to perform. The execution units execute eachinstruction in parallel across the multiple data elements of eachoperand. For example, in response to an add instruction the executionunit performs a simultaneous add operation across each color channelrepresenting a texture element or picture element. By default, theexecution unit performs each instruction across all data channels of theoperands. In some embodiments, instruction control field 2014 enablescontrol over certain execution options, such as channels selection(e.g., predication) and data channel order (e.g., swizzle). Forinstructions in the 128-bit instruction format 2010 an exec-size field2016 limits the number of data channels that will be executed inparallel. In some embodiments, exec-size field 2016 is not available foruse in the 64-bit compact instruction format 2030.

Some execution unit instructions have up to three operands including twosource operands, src0 2020, src1 2022, and one destination 2018. In someembodiments, the execution units support dual destination instructions,where one of the destinations is implied. Data manipulation instructionscan have a third source operand (e.g., SRC2 2024), where the instructionopcode 2012 determines the number of source operands. An instruction'slast source operand can be an immediate (e.g., hard-coded) value passedwith the instruction.

In some embodiments, the 128-bit instruction format 2010 includes anaccess/address mode field 2026 specifying, for example, whether directregister addressing mode or indirect register addressing mode is used.When direct register addressing mode is used, the register address ofone or more operands is directly provided by bits in the instruction.

In some embodiments, the 128-bit instruction format 2010 includes anaccess/address mode field 2026, which specifies an address mode and/oran access mode for the instruction. In one embodiment the access mode isused to define a data access alignment for the instruction. Someembodiments support access modes including a 16-byte aligned access modeand a 1-byte aligned access mode, where the byte alignment of the accessmode determines the access alignment of the instruction operands. Forexample, when in a first mode, the instruction may use byte-alignedaddressing for source and destination operands and when in a secondmode, the instruction may use 16-byte-aligned addressing for all sourceand destination operands.

In one embodiment, the address mode portion of the access/address modefield 2026 determines whether the instruction is to use direct orindirect addressing. When direct register addressing mode is used bitsin the instruction directly provide the register address of one or moreoperands. When indirect register addressing mode is used, the registeraddress of one or more operands may be computed based on an addressregister value and an address immediate field in the instruction.

In some embodiments instructions are grouped based on opcode 2012bit-fields to simplify Opcode decode 2040. For an 8-bit opcode, bits 4,5, and 6 allow the execution unit to determine the type of opcode. Theprecise opcode grouping shown is merely an example. In some embodiments,a move and logic opcode group 2042 includes data movement and logicinstructions (e.g., move (mov), compare (cmp)). In some embodiments,move and logic group 2042 shares the five most significant bits (MSB),where move (mov) instructions are in the form of 0000xxxxb and logicinstructions are in the form of 0001xxxxb. A flow control instructiongroup 2044 (e.g., call, jump (jmp)) includes instructions in the form of0010xxxxb (e.g., 0x20). A miscellaneous instruction group 2046 includesa mix of instructions, including synchronization instructions (e.g.,wait, send) in the form of 0011xxxxb (e.g., 0x30). A parallel mathinstruction group 2048 includes component-wise arithmetic instructions(e.g., add, multiply (mul)) in the form of 0100xxxxb (e.g., 0x40). Theparallel math group 2048 performs the arithmetic operations in parallelacross data channels. The vector math group 2050 includes arithmeticinstructions (e.g., dp4) in the form of 0101xxxxb (e.g., 0x50). Thevector math group performs arithmetic such as dot product calculationson vector operands. The illustrated opcode decode 2040, in oneembodiment, can be used to determine which portion of an execution unitwill be used to execute a decoded instruction. For example, someinstructions may be designated as systolic instructions that will beperformed by a systolic array. Other instructions, such as ray-tracinginstructions (not shown) can be routed to a ray-tracing core orray-tracing logic within a slice or partition of execution logic.

Graphics Pipeline

FIG. 21 is a block diagram of graphics processor 2100, according toanother embodiment. Elements of FIG. 21 having the same referencenumbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure herein canoperate or function in any manner similar to that described elsewhereherein, but are not limited to such.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 2100 includes a geometrypipeline 2120, a media pipeline 2130, a display engine 2140, threadexecution logic 2150, and a render output pipeline 2170. In someembodiments, graphics processor 2100 is a graphics processor within amulti-core processing system that includes one or more general-purposeprocessing cores. The graphics processor is controlled by registerwrites to one or more control registers (not shown) or via commandsissued to graphics processor 2100 via a ring interconnect 2102. In someembodiments, ring interconnect 2102 couples graphics processor 2100 toother processing components, such as other graphics processors orgeneral-purpose processors. Commands from ring interconnect 2102 areinterpreted by a command streamer 2103, which supplies instructions toindividual components of the geometry pipeline 2120 or the mediapipeline 2130.

In some embodiments, command streamer 2103 directs the operation of avertex fetcher 2105 that reads vertex data from memory and executesvertex-processing commands provided by command streamer 2103. In someembodiments, vertex fetcher 2105 provides vertex data to a vertex shader2107, which performs coordinate space transformation and lightingoperations to each vertex. In some embodiments, vertex fetcher 2105 andvertex shader 2107 execute vertex-processing instructions by dispatchingexecution threads to execution units 2152A-2152B via a thread dispatcher2131.

In some embodiments, execution units 2152A-2152B are an array of vectorprocessors having an instruction set for performing graphics and mediaoperations. In some embodiments, execution units 2152A-2152B have anattached L1 cache 2151 that is specific for each array or shared betweenthe arrays. The cache can be configured as a data cache, an instructioncache, or a single cache that is partitioned to contain data andinstructions in different partitions.

In some embodiments, geometry pipeline 2120 includes tessellationcomponents to perform hardware-accelerated tessellation of 3D objects.In some embodiments, a programmable hull shader 2111 configures thetessellation operations. A programmable domain shader 2117 providesback-end evaluation of tessellation output. A tessellator 2113 operatesat the direction of hull shader 2111 and contains special purpose logicto generate a set of detailed geometric objects based on a coarsegeometric model that is provided as input to geometry pipeline 2120. Insome embodiments, if tessellation is not used, tessellation components(e.g., hull shader 2111, tessellator 2113, and domain shader 2117) canbe bypassed.

In some embodiments, complete geometric objects can be processed by ageometry shader 2119 via one or more threads dispatched to executionunits 2152A-2152B, or can proceed directly to the clipper 2129. In someembodiments, the geometry shader operates on entire geometric objects,rather than vertices or patches of vertices as in previous stages of thegraphics pipeline. If the tessellation is disabled the geometry shader2119 receives input from the vertex shader 2107. In some embodiments,geometry shader 2119 is programmable by a geometry shader program toperform geometry tessellation if the tessellation units are disabled.

Before rasterization, a clipper 2129 processes vertex data. The clipper2129 may be a fixed function clipper or a programmable clipper havingclipping and geometry shader functions. In some embodiments, arasterizer and depth test component 2173 in the render output pipeline2170 dispatches pixel shaders to convert the geometric objects into perpixel representations. In some embodiments, pixel shader logic isincluded in thread execution logic 2150. In some embodiments, anapplication can bypass the rasterizer and depth test component 2173 andaccess un-rasterized vertex data via a stream out unit 2123.

The graphics processor 2100 has an interconnect bus, interconnectfabric, or some other interconnect mechanism that allows data andmessage passing amongst the major components of the processor. In someembodiments, execution units 2152A-2152B and associated logic units(e.g., L1 cache 2151, sampler 2154, texture cache 2158, etc.)interconnect via a data port 2156 to perform memory access andcommunicate with render output pipeline components of the processor. Insome embodiments, sampler 2154, caches 2151, 2158 and execution units2152A-2152B each have separate memory access paths. In one embodimentthe texture cache 2158 can also be configured as a sampler cache.

In some embodiments, render output pipeline 2170 contains a rasterizerand depth test component 2173 that converts vertex-based objects into anassociated pixel-based representation. In some embodiments, therasterizer logic includes a windower/masker unit to perform fixedfunction triangle and line rasterization. An associated render cache2178 and depth cache 2179 are also available in some embodiments. Apixel operations component 2177 performs pixel-based operations on thedata, though in some instances, pixel operations associated with 2Doperations (e.g. bit block image transfers with blending) are performedby the 2D engine 2141, or substituted at display time by the displaycontroller 2143 using overlay display planes. In some embodiments, ashared L3 cache 2175 is available to all graphics components, allowingthe sharing of data without the use of main system memory.

In some embodiments, graphics processor media pipeline 2130 includes amedia engine 2137 and a video front-end 2134. In some embodiments, videofront-end 2134 receives pipeline commands from the command streamer2103. In some embodiments, media pipeline 2130 includes a separatecommand streamer. In some embodiments, video front-end 2134 processesmedia commands before sending the command to the media engine 2137. Insome embodiments, media engine 2137 includes thread spawningfunctionality to spawn threads for dispatch to thread execution logic2150 via thread dispatcher 2131.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 2100 includes a display engine2140. In some embodiments, display engine 2140 is external to processor2100 and couples with the graphics processor via the ring interconnect2102, or some other interconnect bus or fabric. In some embodiments,display engine 2140 includes a 2D engine 2141 and a display controller2143. In some embodiments, display engine 2140 contains special purposelogic capable of operating independently of the 3D pipeline. In someembodiments, display controller 2143 couples with a display device (notshown), which may be a system integrated display device, as in a laptopcomputer, or an external display device attached via a display deviceconnector.

In some embodiments, the geometry pipeline 2120 and media pipeline 2130are configurable to perform operations based on multiple graphics andmedia programming interfaces and are not specific to any one applicationprogramming interface (API). In some embodiments, driver software forthe graphics processor translates API calls that are specific to aparticular graphics or media library into commands that can be processedby the graphics processor. In some embodiments, support is provided forthe Open Graphics Library (OpenGL), Open Computing Language (OpenCL),and/or Vulkan graphics and compute API, all from the Khronos Group. Insome embodiments, support may also be provided for the Direct3D libraryfrom the Microsoft Corporation. In some embodiments, a combination ofthese libraries may be supported. Support may also be provided for theOpen Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV). A future API with acompatible 3D pipeline would also be supported if a mapping can be madefrom the pipeline of the future API to the pipeline of the graphicsprocessor.

Graphics Pipeline Programming

FIG. 22A is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor commandformat 2200 according to some embodiments. FIG. 22B is a block diagramillustrating a graphics processor command sequence 2210 according to anembodiment. The solid lined boxes in FIG. 22A illustrate the componentsthat are generally included in a graphics command while the dashed linesinclude components that are optional or that are only included in asub-set of the graphics commands. The exemplary graphics processorcommand format 2200 of FIG. 22A includes data fields to identify aclient 2202, a command operation code (opcode) 2204, and data 2206 forthe command. A sub-opcode 2205 and a command size 2208 are also includedin some commands.

In some embodiments, client 2202 specifies the client unit of thegraphics device that processes the command data. In some embodiments, agraphics processor command parser examines the client field of eachcommand to condition the further processing of the command and route thecommand data to the appropriate client unit. In some embodiments, thegraphics processor client units include a memory interface unit, arender unit, a 2D unit, a 3D unit, and a media unit. Each client unithas a corresponding processing pipeline that processes the commands.Once the command is received by the client unit, the client unit readsthe opcode 2204 and, if present, sub-opcode 2205 to determine theoperation to perform. The client unit performs the command usinginformation in data field 2206. For some commands an explicit commandsize 2208 is expected to specify the size of the command. In someembodiments, the command parser automatically determines the size of atleast some of the commands based on the command opcode. In someembodiments commands are aligned via multiples of a double word. Othercommand formats can be used.

The flow diagram in FIG. 22B illustrates an exemplary graphics processorcommand sequence 2210. In some embodiments, software or firmware of adata processing system that features an embodiment of a graphicsprocessor uses a version of the command sequence shown to set up,execute, and terminate a set of graphics operations. A sample commandsequence is shown and described for purposes of example only asembodiments are not limited to these specific commands or to thiscommand sequence. Moreover, the commands may be issued as batch ofcommands in a command sequence, such that the graphics processor willprocess the sequence of commands in at least partially concurrence.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor command sequence 2210 maybegin with a pipeline flush command 2212 to cause any active graphicspipeline to complete the currently pending commands for the pipeline. Insome embodiments, the 3D pipeline 2222 and the media pipeline 2224 donot operate concurrently. The pipeline flush is performed to cause theactive graphics pipeline to complete any pending commands. In responseto a pipeline flush, the command parser for the graphics processor willpause command processing until the active drawing engines completepending operations and the relevant read caches are invalidated.Optionally, any data in the render cache that is marked ‘dirty’ can beflushed to memory. In some embodiments, pipeline flush command 2212 canbe used for pipeline synchronization or before placing the graphicsprocessor into a low power state.

In some embodiments, a pipeline select command 2213 is used when acommand sequence requires the graphics processor to explicitly switchbetween pipelines. In some embodiments, a pipeline select command 2213is required only once within an execution context before issuingpipeline commands unless the context is to issue commands for bothpipelines. In some embodiments, a pipeline flush command 2212 isrequired immediately before a pipeline switch via the pipeline selectcommand 2213.

In some embodiments, a pipeline control command 2214 configures agraphics pipeline for operation and is used to program the 3D pipeline2222 and the media pipeline 2224. In some embodiments, pipeline controlcommand 2214 configures the pipeline state for the active pipeline. Inone embodiment, the pipeline control command 2214 is used for pipelinesynchronization and to clear data from one or more cache memories withinthe active pipeline before processing a batch of commands.

In some embodiments, return buffer state commands 2216 are used toconfigure a set of return buffers for the respective pipelines to writedata. Some pipeline operations require the allocation, selection, orconfiguration of one or more return buffers into which the operationswrite intermediate data during processing. In some embodiments, thegraphics processor also uses one or more return buffers to store outputdata and to perform cross thread communication. In some embodiments, thereturn buffer state 2216 includes selecting the size and number ofreturn buffers to use for a set of pipeline operations.

The remaining commands in the command sequence differ based on theactive pipeline for operations. Based on a pipeline determination 2220,the command sequence is tailored to the 3D pipeline 2222 beginning withthe 3D pipeline state 2230 or the media pipeline 2224 beginning at themedia pipeline state 2240.

The commands to configure the 3D pipeline state 2230 include 3D statesetting commands for vertex buffer state, vertex element state, constantcolor state, depth buffer state, and other state variables that are tobe configured before 3D primitive commands are processed. The values ofthese commands are determined at least in part based on the particular3D API in use. In some embodiments, 3D pipeline state 2230 commands arealso able to selectively disable or bypass certain pipeline elements ifthose elements will not be used.

In some embodiments, 3D primitive 2232 command is used to submit 3Dprimitives to be processed by the 3D pipeline. Commands and associatedparameters that are passed to the graphics processor via the 3Dprimitive 2232 command are forwarded to the vertex fetch function in thegraphics pipeline. The vertex fetch function uses the 3D primitive 2232command data to generate vertex data structures. The vertex datastructures are stored in one or more return buffers. In someembodiments, 3D primitive 2232 command is used to perform vertexoperations on 3D primitives via vertex shaders. To process vertexshaders, 3D pipeline 2222 dispatches shader execution threads tographics processor execution units.

In some embodiments, 3D pipeline 2222 is triggered via an execute 2234command or event. In some embodiments, a register write triggers commandexecution. In some embodiments execution is triggered via a ‘go’ or‘kick’ command in the command sequence. In one embodiment, commandexecution is triggered using a pipeline synchronization command to flushthe command sequence through the graphics pipeline. The 3D pipeline willperform geometry processing for the 3D primitives. Once operations arecomplete, the resulting geometric objects are rasterized and the pixelengine colors the resulting pixels. Additional commands to control pixelshading and pixel back end operations may also be included for thoseoperations.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor command sequence 2210follows the media pipeline 2224 path when performing media operations.In general, the specific use and manner of programming for the mediapipeline 2224 depends on the media or compute operations to beperformed. Specific media decode operations may be offloaded to themedia pipeline during media decode. In some embodiments, the mediapipeline can also be bypassed and media decode can be performed in wholeor in part using resources provided by one or more general-purposeprocessing cores. In one embodiment, the media pipeline also includeselements for general-purpose graphics processor unit (GPGPU) operations,where the graphics processor is used to perform SIMD vector operationsusing computational shader programs that are not explicitly related tothe rendering of graphics primitives.

In some embodiments, media pipeline 2224 is configured in a similarmanner as the 3D pipeline 2222. A set of commands to configure the mediapipeline state 2240 are dispatched or placed into a command queue beforethe media object commands 2242. In some embodiments, commands for themedia pipeline state 2240 include data to configure the media pipelineelements that will be used to process the media objects. This includesdata to configure the video decode and video encode logic within themedia pipeline, such as encode or decode format. In some embodiments,commands for the media pipeline state 2240 also support the use of oneor more pointers to “indirect” state elements that contain a batch ofstate settings.

In some embodiments, media object commands 2242 supply pointers to mediaobjects for processing by the media pipeline. The media objects includememory buffers containing video data to be processed. In someembodiments, all media pipeline states must be valid before issuing amedia object command 2242. Once the pipeline state is configured andmedia object commands 2242 are queued, the media pipeline 2224 istriggered via an execute command 2244 or an equivalent execute event(e.g., register write). Output from media pipeline 2224 may then be postprocessed by operations provided by the 3D pipeline 2222 or the mediapipeline 2224. In some embodiments, GPGPU operations are configured andexecuted in a similar manner as media operations.

Graphics Software Architecture

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary graphics software architecture for adata processing system 2300 according to some embodiments. In someembodiments, software architecture includes a 3D graphics application2310, an operating system 2320, and at least one processor 2330. In someembodiments, processor 2330 includes a graphics processor 2332 and oneor more general-purpose processor core(s) 2334. The graphics application2310 and operating system 2320 each execute in the system memory 2350 ofthe data processing system.

In some embodiments, 3D graphics application 2310 contains one or moreshader programs including shader instructions 2312. The shader languageinstructions may be in a high-level shader language, such as theHigh-Level Shader Language (HLSL) of Direct3D, the OpenGL ShaderLanguage (GLSL), and so forth. The application also includes executableinstructions 2314 in a machine language suitable for execution by thegeneral-purpose processor core 2334. The application also includesgraphics objects 2316 defined by vertex data.

In some embodiments, operating system 2320 is a Microsoft® Windows®operating system from the Microsoft Corporation, a proprietary UNIX-likeoperating system, or an open source UNIX-like operating system using avariant of the Linux kernel. The operating system 2320 can support agraphics API 2322 such as the Direct3D API, the OpenGL API, or theVulkan API. When the Direct3D API is in use, the operating system 2320uses a front-end shader compiler 2324 to compile any shader instructions2312 in HLSL into a lower-level shader language. The compilation may bea just-in-time (JIT) compilation or the application can perform shaderpre-compilation. In some embodiments, high-level shaders are compiledinto low-level shaders during the compilation of the 3D graphicsapplication 2310. In some embodiments, the shader instructions 2312 areprovided in an intermediate form, such as a version of the StandardPortable Intermediate Representation (SPIR) used by the Vulkan API.

In some embodiments, user mode graphics driver 2326 contains a back-endshader compiler 2327 to convert the shader instructions 2312 into ahardware specific representation. When the OpenGL API is in use, shaderinstructions 2312 in the GLSL high-level language are passed to a usermode graphics driver 2326 for compilation. In some embodiments, usermode graphics driver 2326 uses operating system kernel mode functions2328 to communicate with a kernel mode graphics driver 2329. In someembodiments, kernel mode graphics driver 2329 communicates with graphicsprocessor 2332 to dispatch commands and instructions.

IP Core Implementations

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented byrepresentative code stored on a machine-readable medium which representsand/or defines logic within an integrated circuit such as a processor.For example, the machine-readable medium may include instructions whichrepresent various logic within the processor. When read by a machine,the instructions may cause the machine to fabricate the logic to performthe techniques described herein. Such representations, known as “IPcores,” are reusable units of logic for an integrated circuit that maybe stored on a tangible, machine-readable medium as a hardware modelthat describes the structure of the integrated circuit. The hardwaremodel may be supplied to various customers or manufacturing facilities,which load the hardware model on fabrication machines that manufacturethe integrated circuit. The integrated circuit may be fabricated suchthat the circuit performs operations described in association with anyof the embodiments described herein.

FIG. 24A is a block diagram illustrating an IP core development system2400 that may be used to manufacture an integrated circuit to performoperations according to an embodiment. The IP core development system2400 may be used to generate modular, re-usable designs that can beincorporated into a larger design or used to construct an entireintegrated circuit (e.g., an SOC integrated circuit). A design facility2430 can generate a software simulation 2410 of an IP core design in ahigh-level programming language (e.g., C/C++). The software simulation2410 can be used to design, test, and verify the behavior of the IP coreusing a simulation model 2412. The simulation model 2412 may includefunctional, behavioral, and/or timing simulations. A register transferlevel (RTL) design 2415 can then be created or synthesized from thesimulation model 2412. The RTL design 2415 is an abstraction of thebehavior of the integrated circuit that models the flow of digitalsignals between hardware registers, including the associated logicperformed using the modeled digital signals. In addition to an RTLdesign 2415, lower-level designs at the logic level or transistor levelmay also be created, designed, or synthesized. Thus, the particulardetails of the initial design and simulation may vary.

The RTL design 2415 or equivalent may be further synthesized by thedesign facility into a hardware model 2420, which may be in a hardwaredescription language (HDL), or some other representation of physicaldesign data. The HDL may be further simulated or tested to verify the IPcore design. The IP core design can be stored for delivery to a 3^(rd)party fabrication facility 2465 using non-volatile memory 2440 (e.g.,hard disk, flash memory, or any non-volatile storage medium).Alternatively, the IP core design may be transmitted (e.g., via theInternet) over a wired connection 2450 or wireless connection 2460. Thefabrication facility 2465 may then fabricate an integrated circuit thatis based at least in part on the IP core design. The fabricatedintegrated circuit can be configured to perform operations in accordancewith at least one embodiment described herein.

FIG. 24B illustrates a cross-section side view of an integrated circuitpackage assembly 2470, according to some embodiments described herein.The integrated circuit package assembly 2470 illustrates animplementation of one or more processor or accelerator devices asdescribed herein. The package assembly 2470 includes multiple units ofhardware logic 2472, 2474 connected to a substrate 2480. The logic 2472,2474 may be implemented at least partly in configurable logic orfixed-functionality logic hardware, and can include one or more portionsof any of the processor core(s), graphics processor(s), or otheraccelerator devices described herein. Each unit of logic 2472, 2474 canbe implemented within a semiconductor die and coupled with the substrate2480 via an interconnect structure 2473. The interconnect structure 2473may be configured to route electrical signals between the logic 2472,2474 and the substrate 2480, and can include interconnects such as, butnot limited to bumps or pillars. In some embodiments, the interconnectstructure 2473 may be configured to route electrical signals such as,for example, input/output (I/O) signals and/or power or ground signalsassociated with the operation of the logic 2472, 2474. In someembodiments, the substrate 2480 is an epoxy-based laminate substrate.The substrate 2480 may include other suitable types of substrates inother embodiments. The package assembly 2470 can be connected to otherelectrical devices via a package interconnect 2483. The packageinterconnect 2483 may be coupled to a surface of the substrate 2480 toroute electrical signals to other electrical devices, such as amotherboard, other chipset, or multi-chip module.

In some embodiments, the units of logic 2472, 2474 are electricallycoupled with a bridge 2482 that is configured to route electricalsignals between the logic 2472, 2474. The bridge 2482 may be a denseinterconnect structure that provides a route for electrical signals. Thebridge 2482 may include a bridge substrate composed of glass or asuitable semiconductor material. Electrical routing features can beformed on the bridge substrate to provide a chip-to-chip connectionbetween the logic 2472, 2474.

Although two units of logic 2472, 2474 and a bridge 2482 areillustrated, embodiments described herein may include more or fewerlogic units on one or more dies. The one or more dies may be connectedby zero or more bridges, as the bridge 2482 may be excluded when thelogic is included on a single die. Alternatively, multiple dies or unitsof logic can be connected by one or more bridges. Additionally, multiplelogic units, dies, and bridges can be connected together in otherpossible configurations, including three-dimensional configurations.

FIG. 24C illustrates a package assembly 2490 that includes multipleunits of hardware logic chiplets connected to a substrate 2480 (e.g.,base die). A graphics processing unit, parallel processor, and/orcompute accelerator as described herein can be composed from diversesilicon chiplets that are separately manufactured. In this context, achiplet is an at least partially packaged integrated circuit thatincludes distinct units of logic that can be assembled with otherchiplets into a larger package. A diverse set of chiplets with differentIP core logic can be assembled into a single device. Additionally thechiplets can be integrated into a base die or base chiplet using activeinterposer technology. The concepts described herein enable theinterconnection and communication between the different forms of IPwithin the GPU. IP cores can be manufactured using different processtechnologies and composed during manufacturing, which avoids thecomplexity of converging multiple IPs, especially on a large SoC withseveral flavors IPs, to the same manufacturing process. Enabling the useof multiple process technologies improves the time to market andprovides a cost-effective way to create multiple product SKUs.Additionally, the disaggregated IPs are more amenable to being powergated independently, components that are not in use on a given workloadcan be powered off, reducing overall power consumption.

The hardware logic chiplets can include special purpose hardware logicchiplets 2472, logic or I/O chiplets 2474, and/or memory chiplets 2475.The hardware logic chiplets 2472 and logic or I/O chiplets 2474 may beimplemented at least partly in configurable logic or fixed-functionalitylogic hardware and can include one or more portions of any of theprocessor core(s), graphics processor(s), parallel processors, or otheraccelerator devices described herein. The memory chiplets 2475 can beDRAM (e.g., GDDR, HBM) memory or cache (SRAM) memory.

Each chiplet can be fabricated as separate semiconductor die and coupledwith the substrate 2480 via an interconnect structure 2473. Theinterconnect structure 2473 may be configured to route electricalsignals between the various chiplets and logic within the substrate2480. The interconnect structure 2473 can include interconnects such as,but not limited to bumps or pillars. In some embodiments, theinterconnect structure 2473 may be configured to route electricalsignals such as, for example, input/output (I/O) signals and/or power orground signals associated with the operation of the logic, I/O andmemory chiplets.

In some embodiments, the substrate 2480 is an epoxy-based laminatesubstrate. The substrate 2480 may include other suitable types ofsubstrates in other embodiments. The package assembly 2490 can beconnected to other electrical devices via a package interconnect 2483.The package interconnect 2483 may be coupled to a surface of thesubstrate 2480 to route electrical signals to other electrical devices,such as a motherboard, other chipset, or multi-chip module.

In some embodiments, a logic or I/O chiplet 2474 and a memory chiplet2475 can be electrically coupled via a bridge 2487 that is configured toroute electrical signals between the logic or I/O chiplet 2474 and amemory chiplet 2475. The bridge 2487 may be a dense interconnectstructure that provides a route for electrical signals. The bridge 2487may include a bridge substrate composed of glass or a suitablesemiconductor material. Electrical routing features can be formed on thebridge substrate to provide a chip-to-chip connection between the logicor I/O chiplet 2474 and a memory chiplet 2475. The bridge 2487 may alsobe referred to as a silicon bridge or an interconnect bridge. Forexample, the bridge 2487, in some embodiments, is an Embedded Multi-dieInterconnect Bridge (EMIB). In some embodiments, the bridge 2487 maysimply be a direct connection from one chiplet to another chiplet.

The substrate 2480 can include hardware components for I/O 2491, cachememory 2492, and other hardware logic 2493. A fabric 2485 can beembedded in the substrate 2480 to enable communication between thevarious logic chiplets and the logic 2491, 2493 within the substrate2480. In one embodiment, the I/O 2491, fabric 2485, cache, bridge, andother hardware logic 2493 can be integrated into a base die that islayered on top of the substrate 2480.

In various embodiments a package assembly 2490 can include fewer orgreater number of components and chiplets that are interconnected by afabric 2485 or one or more bridges 2487. The chiplets within the packageassembly 2490 may be arranged in a 3D or 2.5D arrangement. In general,bridge structures 2487 may be used to facilitate a point to pointinterconnect between, for example, logic or I/O chiplets and memorychiplets. The fabric 2485 can be used to interconnect the various logicand/or I/O chiplets (e.g., chiplets 2472, 2474, 2491, 2493). with otherlogic and/or I/O chiplets. In one embodiment, the cache memory 2492within the substrate can act as a global cache for the package assembly2490, part of a distributed global cache, or as a dedicated cache forthe fabric 2485.

FIG. 24D illustrates a package assembly 2494 including interchangeablechiplets 2495, according to an embodiment. The interchangeable chiplets2495 can be assembled into standardized slots on one or more basechiplets 2496, 2498. The base chiplets 2496, 2498 can be coupled via abridge interconnect 2497, which can be similar to the other bridgeinterconnects described herein and may be, for example, an EMIB. Memorychiplets can also be connected to logic or I/O chiplets via a bridgeinterconnect. I/O and logic chiplets can communicate via an interconnectfabric. The base chiplets can each support one or more slots in astandardized format for one of logic or I/O or memory/cache.

In one embodiment, SRAM and power delivery circuits can be fabricatedinto one or more of the base chiplets 2496, 2498, which can befabricated using a different process technology relative to theinterchangeable chiplets 2495 that are stacked on top of the basechiplets. For example, the base chiplets 2496, 2498 can be fabricatedusing a larger process technology, while the interchangeable chipletscan be manufactured using a smaller process technology. One or more ofthe interchangeable chiplets 2495 may be memory (e.g., DRAM) chiplets.Different memory densities can be selected for the package assembly 2494based on the power, and/or performance targeted for the product thatuses the package assembly 2494. Additionally, logic chiplets with adifferent number of type of functional units can be selected at time ofassembly based on the power, and/or performance targeted for theproduct. Additionally, chiplets containing IP logic cores of differingtypes can be inserted into the interchangeable chiplet slots, enablinghybrid processor designs that can mix and match different technology IPblocks.

Exemplary System on a Chip Integrated Circuit

FIG. 25-26A-B illustrated exemplary integrated circuits and associatedgraphics processors that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores,according to various embodiments described herein. In addition to whatis illustrated, other logic and circuits may be included, includingadditional graphics processors/cores, peripheral interface controllers,or general-purpose processor cores.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system on a chipintegrated circuit 2500 that may be fabricated using one or more IPcores, according to an embodiment. Exemplary integrated circuit 2500includes one or more application processor(s) 2505 (e.g., CPUs), atleast one graphics processor 2510, and may additionally include an imageprocessor 2515 and/or a video processor 2520, any of which may be amodular IP core from the same or multiple different design facilities.Integrated circuit 2500 includes peripheral or bus logic including a USBcontroller 2525, UART controller 2530, an SPI/SDIO controller 2535, andan I²S/I²C controller 2540. Additionally, the integrated circuit caninclude a display device 2545 coupled to one or more of ahigh-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) controller 2550 and a mobileindustry processor interface (MIPI) display interface 2555. Storage maybe provided by a flash memory subsystem 2560 including flash memory anda flash memory controller. Memory interface may be provided via a memorycontroller 2565 for access to SDRAM or SRAM memory devices. Someintegrated circuits additionally include an embedded security engine2570.

FIG. 26A-26B are block diagrams illustrating exemplary graphicsprocessors for use within an SoC, according to embodiments describedherein. FIG. 26A illustrates an exemplary graphics processor 2610 of asystem on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one ormore IP cores, according to an embodiment. FIG. 26B illustrates anadditional exemplary graphics processor 2640 of a system on a chipintegrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores,according to an embodiment. Graphics processor 2610 of FIG. 26A is anexample of a low power graphics processor core. Graphics processor 2640of FIG. 26B is an example of a higher performance graphics processorcore. Each of the graphics processors 2610, 2640 can be variants of thegraphics processor 2510 of FIG. 25.

As shown in FIG. 26A, graphics processor 2610 includes a vertexprocessor 2605 and one or more fragment processor(s) 2615A-2615N (e.g.,2615A, 2615B, 2615C, 2615D, through 2615N-1, and 2615N). Graphicsprocessor 2610 can execute different shader programs via separate logic,such that the vertex processor 2605 is optimized to execute operationsfor vertex shader programs, while the one or more fragment processor(s)2615A-2615N execute fragment (e.g., pixel) shading operations forfragment or pixel shader programs. The vertex processor 2605 performsthe vertex processing stage of the 3D graphics pipeline and generatesprimitives and vertex data. The fragment processor(s) 2615A-2615N usethe primitive and vertex data generated by the vertex processor 2605 toproduce a framebuffer that is displayed on a display device. In oneembodiment, the fragment processor(s) 2615A-2615N are optimized toexecute fragment shader programs as provided for in the OpenGL API,which may be used to perform similar operations as a pixel shaderprogram as provided for in the Direct 3D API.

Graphics processor 2610 additionally includes one or more memorymanagement units (MMUs) 2620A-2620B, cache(s) 2625A-2625B, and circuitinterconnect(s) 2630A-2630B. The one or more MMU(s) 2620A-2620B providefor virtual to physical address mapping for the graphics processor 2610,including for the vertex processor 2605 and/or fragment processor(s)2615A-2615N, which may reference vertex or image/texture data stored inmemory, in addition to vertex or image/texture data stored in the one ormore cache(s) 2625A-2625B. In one embodiment the one or more MMU(s)2620A-2620B may be synchronized with other MMUs within the system,including one or more MMUs associated with the one or more applicationprocessor(s) 2505, image processor 2515, and/or video processor 2520 ofFIG. 25, such that each processor 2505-2520 can participate in a sharedor unified virtual memory system. The one or more circuitinterconnect(s) 2630A-2630B enable graphics processor 2610 to interfacewith other IP cores within the SoC, either via an internal bus of theSoC or via a direct connection, according to embodiments.

As shown FIG. 26B, graphics processor 2640 includes the one or moreMMU(s) 2620A-2620B, cache(s) 2625A-2625B, and circuit interconnect(s)2630A-2630B of the graphics processor 2610 of FIG. 26A. Graphicsprocessor 2640 includes one or more shader cores 2655A-2655N (e.g.,2655A, 2655B, 2655C, 2655D, 2655E, 2655F, through 2655N-1, and 2655N),which provides for a unified shader core architecture in which a singlecore or type or core can execute all types of programmable shader code,including shader program code to implement vertex shaders, fragmentshaders, and/or compute shaders. The exact number of shader corespresent can vary among embodiments and implementations. Additionally,graphics processor 2640 includes an inter-core task manager 2645, whichacts as a thread dispatcher to dispatch execution threads to one or moreshader cores 2655A-2655N and a tiling unit 2658 to accelerate tilingoperations for tile-based rendering, in which rendering operations for ascene are subdivided in image space, for example to exploit localspatial coherence within a scene or to optimize use of internal caches.

Apparatus and Method for Evaluating the Quality of 3D Point Cloud

FIG. 27 illustrates an exemplary environment 2700 in which a scenecomprising object(s) are captured. As shown in FIG. 27, the scene is aview of a football match held in a football field, and the objects are aplurality of players playing the football match. As shown in FIG. 27, aplurality of cameras distributed (i.e., installed) around the footballfield are used to capture a plurality of images of the scene. A 3Dreconstruction technology may be applied to the plurality of imagescaptured by the cameras to create a 3D point cloud of the scene. Then,the created 3D point cloud may be used to provide immersive experience.

FIG. 28 illustrates an image 2800 of the scene of FIG. 27 captured byone camera. In FIG. 28, a portion of the football field, in which aplurality of players are playing a football match, is shown. Thefootball match may be the scene for which a 3D point cloud is to becreated to provide immersive experience and the players may be theobjects for creation of the 3D point cloud.

FIG. 29 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a segmented 2D image2910 is compared with a corresponding 2D mask 2930 to obtain acomparison result 2950 for an image according to an embodiment.According to some embodiments, for each image of a scene captured by acamera, a segmented 2D image 2910 and a 2D mask 2930 may be generated.Then, the segmented 2D image 2910 may be compared with the 2D mask 2930to obtain a comparison result 2950. For illustrative purpose, thecomparison result 2950 shows a region of false negatives pixels 2952 anda region of false positives pixels 2954. After the comparison resultsfor all the images captured by the cameras have been obtained, thecomparison results for all the images may be aggregated to evaluate thequality of the 3D point cloud created for a scene, as further discussedin detail below.

FIG. 30 is a flow chart illustrating a method 3000 for evaluating thequality of a 3D point cloud according to an embodiment. As discussedabove, a 3D point cloud for a scene comprising a plurality of objectsmay be created from a plurality of images captured by a plurality ofcameras.

At block 3010, the method 3000 may generate a segmented 2D image foreach of the plurality of images.

Optionally, at block 3020, the method 3000 may tune the segmented 2Dimage to improve the accuracy of the segmented results or may tune itinto a segmentation ground truth image. In some embodiments, the tuningmay be a manual tuning, an automatic tuning, or a combination thereof.

At block 3030, the method 3000 may generate a 2D mask for each of theplurality of images from the 3D point cloud.

At block 3040, the method 3000 may compare the segmented 2D image withthe 2D mask to obtain a comparison result for each image.

At block 3050, the method 3000 may evaluate the quality of the 3D pointcloud based on aggregated comparison results for the plurality ofimages.

In some embodiments, the comparison results for the plurality of imagesmay be aggregated. For example, the comparison results for the pluralityof images may be summed and a mean of the summation may be calculated toevaluate the quality of the 3D point cloud. It is noted that the presentdisclosure is not limited to any specific approach to aggregate thecomparison results for the plurality of images.

Since generating a segmented 2D image and a 2D mask for each image andcomparing them is relatively fast, the method 3000 may evaluate thequality of 3D point cloud in an efficient way so as to continuouslyoptimize the created 3D point cloud for better user's real-timeexperiences.

Although FIG. 30 illustrates steps of the method 3000 in a specificsequence, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that thesequence is illustrative instead of limiting. The actual sequence inwhich the steps are performed may vary depending on implementations. Insome embodiments, block 3010 may occur first, followed by occurrence ofblock 3030, block 3040 and block 3050. In other embodiments, block 3030may occur first, followed by occurrence of block 3010, block 3040 andblock 3050. In further embodiments, block 3010 and block 3030 may occurconcurrently, followed by occurrence of block 3040 and block 3050. Instill further embodiments, block 3010 and block 3030 may occurconcurrently, and occurrence of block 3010 and block 3030 may be atleast partly concurrent with occurrence of block 3040. In someembodiments, block 3020 may occur prior to occurrence of block 3040. Inother embodiments, block 3020 may be omitted. Other embodiments are alsopossible.

FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram illustrating how an image is processed togenerate a segmented 2D image for the image according to an embodiment.

An image 3110, which shows a scene of a football match played by aplurality of players, may be received first. Then, an object detectionalgorithm may be applied to the image 3110 to obtain a plurality of 2Dbounding boxes 3120, each detected objects (i.e., players in thisembodiment) having a corresponding 2D bounding box 3120.

In some embodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm maybe used as the object detection algorithm. For example, a YOLO algorithmmay be used as the object detection algorithm.

Then, the plurality of 2D bounding boxes 3120 may be padded to form aplurality of blocks 3130, each having a same size. In some embodiments,the size may be 512 pixels*512 pixels.

Then, a segmentation algorithm may be applied to each of the blocks 3130to generate a segmented result 3140 for each block 3130.

In some embodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm maybe used as the segmentation algorithm. For example, a DeepLabV3+algorithm may be used as the segmentation algorithm.

The segmented results 3140 for all the blocks 3130 may be combined togenerate a segmented 2D image 3150 for the image 3110.

FIG. 32 is a flow chart illustrating a method 3200 for generating asegmented 2D image for each image according to an embodiment.

At block 3210, the method 3200 may detect objects in the scene with anobject detection algorithm to obtain a 2D bounding box for each detectedobject. In some embodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN)algorithm may be used as the object detection algorithm. For example, aYOLO algorithm may be used as the object detection algorithm. It isnoted that the present disclosure is not limited to any specific objectdetection algorithm.

At block 3220, the method 3200 may filter out the detected objectsoutside a region of interest that is inside the scene. There mightusually be some objects in the scene that are outside the region ofinterest inside the scene (i.e. out of interest of creating the 3D pointcloud) and thus shall be filtered out. For example, if the scene is ascene of a football game with a plurality of players inside theplayfield, the audience outside the playfield may be regarded as theobjects out of interest and may be filtered out even if they have beendetected as objects. In some embodiments, the objects outside the regionof interest may be filtered out by a pre-defined mask. Still referringto the example of the football match, a pre-defined mask for thefootball field may be used to filter out the detected objectscorresponding to the audience.

At block 3230, the method 3200 may pad each 2D bounding box inside theregion of interest outwards with padding pixels to form a plurality ofblocks each having a first size. In some embodiments, the first size maybe 512 pixels*512 pixels.

At block 3240, the method 3200 may apply a segmentation algorithm to theplurality of blocks to generate block-based segmented results. In someembodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm may be usedas the segmentation algorithm. For example, a DeepLabV3+ algorithm maybe used as the segmentation algorithm. It is noted that the presentdisclosure is not limited to any specific segmentation algorithm.

At block 3250, the method 3200 may combine the segmented results togenerate a block-based segmented 2D image. In some embodiments, theblock-based segmented 2D image may be the final segmented 2D image foreach image.

Although FIG. 32 illustrates steps of the method 3200 in a specificsequence, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that thesequence is illustrative instead of limiting. The actual sequence inwhich the steps of the method 3200 are performed may vary depending onimplementations. For example, in some embodiments, occurrence of block3210, block 3220 and block 3230 may be at least partly concurrent withoccurrence of block 3240. Other embodiments are also possible.

FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram illustrating how an image is processed togenerate a segmented 2D image for the image according to an embodiment.In the embodiment shown in FIG. 33, the segmented 2D image is generatedbased on tiles which are split from each image.

In this embodiment, the image 3310 is first split into tiles withhorizontal lines and vertical lines. As shown, most of the tiles (e.g.,tiles 3315) may be of the same size while the tiles (e.g., tiles 3318)at the edges of the image may be of a smaller size. In some embodiments,most of the tiles (e.g., tiles 3315) may have a size of 512 pixels*512pixels, while tiles (e.g., tiles 3318) at the edges of the image may beof a smaller size. In order to apply a segmentation algorithm, thoseedge tiles of the smaller size may first be padded with padding pixelsto form padded tiles (not shown), so that all the tiles of the image areof the same size. In some embodiments, the same size may be 512pixels*512 pixels.

Then, the segmentation algorithm may be applied to each tile to generatethe segmented 2D image for each tile. In some embodiments, aconvolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm may be used as thesegmentation algorithm. For example, a DeepLabV3+ algorithm may be usedas the segmentation algorithm. Finally the segmented results for all thetiles may be combined to generate the segmented 2D image.

FIG. 34 is a flow chart illustrating a method 3400 for generating asegmented 2D image for each image according to an embodiment.

At block 3420, the method 3400 may split each of the plurality of imagesinto a first plurality of tiles each having a first size and a secondplurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller than the firstsize. For example, each image may be split by horizontal lines andvertical lines to form tiles of the first size. With the block 3420,there still may be some edge tiles each having a second size smallerthan the first size. In some embodiments, the first size may be 512pixels*512 pixels, while the edge tiles may have a smaller size. Theedge tiles need to be further processed.

At block 3440, the method 3400 may pad the second plurality of edgetiles outwards with padding pixels to form the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles each having the first size.

At block 3460, the method 3400 may apply a segmentation algorithm to thefirst plurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tilesto generate tile-based segmented results to generate tile-basedsegmented results for the first plurality of tiles and the secondplurality of padded edge tiles. In some embodiments, a convolutionalneural network (CNN) algorithm may be used as the segmentationalgorithm. For example, a DeepLabV3+ algorithm may be used as thesegmentation algorithm. It is noted that the present disclosure is notlimited to any specific object detection algorithm.

At block 3480, the method 3400 may combine the tile-based segmentedresults for the first plurality of tiles and the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented 2D image. In someembodiments, the tile-based segmented 2D image for each image may be thefinal segmented 2D image for each image.

Although FIG. 34 illustrates steps of the method 3400 in a specificsequence, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that thesequence is illustrative instead of limiting. The actual sequence inwhich the steps of the method 3400 are performed may vary depending onimplementations. For example, in some embodiments, occurrence of block3420 and block 3440 may be at least partly concurrent with occurrence ofblock 3460. Other embodiments are also possible.

FIG. 35 is a schematic diagram illustrating how a segmented 2D image andanother segmented 2D image for a same image are merged to obtain acomparison result for the image according to an embodiment. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 35, both a block-based segmented 2D image and atile-based segmented 2D image are generated and merged to obtain acomparison result.

In this embodiment, for ease of discussion, a segmented 2D image 3510may be the segmented 2D image 3150 of FIG. 31 and another segmented 2Dimage 3530 may be the segmented 2D image 3350 of FIG. 33. Thus, it canbe understood that the process of FIG. 31 and the process of FIG. 33 mayalso be included in the process of FIG. 35.

In this embodiment, logical OR operations of values of pixels of thesegmented 2D image 3510 and values of corresponding pixels of thesegmented 2D image 3530 are performed to generate the segmented 2D image3550. As shown, the segmented 2D images 3510, 3530 and 3550 also showcorrect pixels, false positives pixels and false negatives pixels. Forexample, the segmented 2D images 3510 and 3530 show regions of falsenegatives pixels 3512 and 3532 respectively. For example, the segmented2D images 3510 and 3530 show regions of false positives pixels 3514 and3534 respectively. It is noted that although the segmented 2D image 3550might also contain some false negatives pixels and false positivespixels (not shown), much less such pixels exists in the segmented 2Dimage 3550 than in the segmented 2D images 3510 and 3530.

FIG. 36 is a flow chart illustrating a method 3600 for generating asegmented 2D image for each image according to an embodiment.

The method 3600 may generate a block-based segmented 2D image for eachimage as shown in block 3610 to block 3650.

At block 3610, the method 3600 may detect objects in the scene with anobject detection algorithm to obtain a 2D bounding box for each detectedobject. In some embodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN)algorithm may be used as the object detection algorithm. For example, aYOLO algorithm may be used as the object detection algorithm. It isnoted that the present disclosure is not limited to any specific objectdetection algorithm.

At block 3620, the method 3600 may filter out the detected objectsoutside a region of interest that is inside the scene. There mightusually be some objects in the scene that are outside the region ofinterest inside the scene (i.e. out of interest of creating the 3D pointcloud) and thus shall be filtered out. For example, if the scene is ascene of a football match played by a plurality of players inside theplayfield, the audience outside the playfield may be regarded as theobjects out of interest and may be filtered out even if they have beendetected as objects. In some embodiments, the objects outside the regionof interest may be filtered out by a pre-defined mask. Still referringto the example of the football match, a pre-defined mask for thefootball field may be used to filter out the detected objectscorresponding to the audience.

At block 3630, the method 3600 may pad each 2D bounding box inside theregion of interest outwards with padding pixels to form a plurality ofblocks each having a first size.

At block 3640, the method 3600 may apply a segmentation algorithm to theplurality of blocks to generate block-based segmented results. In someembodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm may be usedas the segmentation algorithm. For example, a DeepLabV3+ algorithm maybe used as the segmentation algorithm. It is noted that the presentdisclosure is not limited to any specific object detection algorithm.

At block 3650, the method 3600 may combine the block-based segmentedresults to generate a block-based segmented 2D image.

The method 3600 may also generate a tile-based segmented 2D image foreach image as shown in block 3615 to block 3645.

At block 3615, the method 3600 may split each of the plurality of imagesis split into a first plurality of tiles each having a first size and asecond plurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller thanthe first size. For example, each image may be split by horizontal linesand vertical lines to form tiles of the first size. With the block 3420,there still may be some edge tiles each having a second size smallerthan the first size. Those edge tiles need to be further processed.

At block 3625, the method 3600 may pad the second plurality of edgetiles outwards with padding pixels to form the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles each having the first size.

At block 3635, the method 3600 may apply a segmentation algorithm to thefirst plurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tilesto generate tile-based segmented results for the first plurality oftiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles. In someembodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm may be usedas the segmentation algorithm. For example, a DeepLabV3+ algorithm maybe used as the segmentation algorithm. It is noted that the presentdisclosure is not limited to any specific object detection algorithm.

At block 3645, the method 3600 may combine the tile-based segmentedresults for the first plurality of tiles and the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented 2D image.

At block 3660, the method 3600 may merge the block-based segmented 2Dimage and the tile-based segmented 2D image to generate the segmented 2Dimage. In some embodiments, merging the block-based segmented 2D imageand the tile-based segmented 2D image may comprise performing logical ORoperations of values of pixels of the block-based segmented 2D image andvalues of corresponding pixels of the tile-based segmented 2D image. Itis noted that the present disclosure is not limited to any specificoperation for merging.

As each block is formed from one or more 2D bounding box for thedetected objects (i.e., full human bodies in this embodiment), the blockmay usually contain full information regarding the detected objects.Thus, the block-based segmented 2D image generated according to block3610 to block 3650 may be more accurate. However, some (e.g., key)elements of the detected objects may be missing in the block-basedsegmented 2D image due to occlusion or background cluttering, orlighting.

In contrast, as each tile is formed by simply splitting each image, thetile may usually contain incomplete objects (e.g., only a portion of anobject). Thus, the tile-based segmented 2D image generated according toblock 3615 to block 3645 may be less accurate, but may be lesssusceptible to occlusion or background cluttering, or lighting and thus(e.g., key) elements of the detected objects may be less likely to bemissing in the tile-based segmented 2D image.

By merging the block-based segmented 2D image and the tile-basedsegmented 2D image, more accurate segmented 2D image may be generated(see e.g., FIG. 35).

Table 5 below shows a comparison of accuracy of the segmented 2D imagewith a block-based approach (e.g., method 3200 of FIG. 32), a tile-basedapproach (e.g., method 3400 of FIG. 34) and a hybrid approach (e.g.,method 3600 of FIG. 36). The results show that the hybrid approach(e.g., method 3600 of FIG. 36) may achieve higher accuracy of thesegmented 2D image in terms of precision and recall as a whole. As shownin Table 5, the segmented 2D image with the hybrid approach may beslightly lower than the segmented 2D image with the block-based approachor the segmented 2D image with the tile-based approach, but it mayachieve more improvements in terms of recall than the segmented 2D imagewith the block-based approach or the segmented 2D image with thetile-based approach. The recall reflects the degree of missing of objectelements in creation of a 3D point cloud and the precision reflects thelevel of noises in creation of a 3D point cloud and the degree ofmissing of object elements are more intuitional and important for user'simmersive experience, thus it is helpful for more accurately reflectingthe quality of a 3D point cloud to achieve a higher recall by slightlysacrificing the precision.

TABLE 5 Accuracy of Segmented 2D image with Different SegmentationApproaches Segmentation Approach Precision Recall Block-based Approach0.9291 0.9143 Tile-based Approach 0.9138 0.8572 Hybrid Approach 0.90810.9450

Although FIG. 36 illustrates steps of the method 3600 in a specificsequence, it will be appreciated by one skilled in the art that thesequence is illustrative instead of limiting. The actual sequence inwhich the steps of the method 3600 are performed may vary depending onimplementations. For example, in some embodiments, block 3610 to block3650 may occur in serial with or in parallel with block 3615 to block3645. For example, in some embodiments, occurrence of block 3610, block3620 and block 3630 may be at least partly concurrent with occurrence ofblock 3640. For example, in some embodiments, occurrence of block 3615and block 3625 may be at least partly concurrent with occurrence ofblock 3635. Other embodiments are also possible.

FIG. 37 is a flow chart illustrating a method 3700 for generating a 2Dmask for each image according to an embodiment.

At block 3720, the method 3700 may perform dot product operations of thecalibration matrix of each camera and 3D position data for a point inthe 3D point cloud to obtain a product matrix of the point.

At block 3740, the method 3700 may obtain a 2D position data from theproduct matrix for the point.

At block 3760, the method 3700 may form a 2D mask result for the point.The 2D mask for the point may comprise the 2D position data and a uniqueindex identifying the point. In some embodiment, the 3D point data foreach point in the 3D point cloud may be represented as (x, y, z,p-index), wherein x, y, z may be 3D coordinate values of each point andthe p-index is a unique index to identify each point.

In some embodiments, a 2-D position data of a point may be calculated asfollows:

A dot product operation of a calibration matrix p-matrix of a camera anda 3D position data p3d may performed to obtain a product matrix dot. Insome embodiments, the calibration matrix p-matrix may in the form of

${{p - {matrix}} = \begin{bmatrix}{p_{11}p_{12}p_{13}p_{14}} \\{p_{21}p_{22}p_{23}p_{24}} \\{p_{31}p_{32}p_{33}p_{34}}\end{bmatrix}},$and the 3D position data p3d may in the form of

${p3d} = {\begin{bmatrix}ϰ \\y \\z \\1\end{bmatrix}.}$Accordingly, the product matrix dot may be calculated as:

${d{ot}} = {{\begin{bmatrix}{p_{11}p_{12}p_{13}p_{14}} \\{p_{21}p_{22}p_{23}p_{24}} \\{p_{31}p_{32}p_{33}p_{34}}\end{bmatrix}.\begin{bmatrix}ϰ \\y \\z \\1\end{bmatrix}} = {\begin{bmatrix}{do{t\lbrack 0\rbrack}} \\{do{t\lbrack 1\rbrack}} \\{do{t\lbrack 2\rbrack}}\end{bmatrix} = {\begin{bmatrix}{p_{11}x + p_{12}y + p_{13}z + p_{14}} \\{{p_{21}x} + {p_{22}y} + {p_{23}z} + p_{24}} \\{{p_{31}x} + {p_{32}y} + {p_{33}z} + p_{34}}\end{bmatrix}.\begin{matrix}\; \\\; \\\;\end{matrix}}}}$Then, a 2D position data p2d of the point may be obtained from theproduct matrix dot. In some embodiments, the 2D position data p2d may becalculated as:

${{p2d} = \left( {\frac{{dot}\lbrack 0\rbrack}{{dot}\lbrack 2\rbrack},\frac{{dot}\lbrack 1\rbrack}{{dot}\lbrack 2\rbrack},{p - {index}}} \right)}.$It is noted that the above calibration matrix p-matrix and 3D positiondata p3d are merely exemplary. Other forms of p-matrix and p3d are alsopossible.

At block 3780, the method 3700 may combine the 2D mask results for allthe points in the 3D point cloud to generate the 2D mask for each image.

FIG. 38 is a flow chart illustrating a method 3800 for comparing thesegmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result foreach image according to an embodiment.

At block 3820, the method 3800 may compare values of pixels of thesegmented 2D image with values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask todetermine true positives pixels and false positives pixels. The truepositives pixels may correspond to points in the 3D point cloud that arecorrectly created, and the false positives pixels may correspond tonoise points in the 3D point cloud that are to be removed.

At block 3840, the method 3800 may obtain the comparison result for eachimage by calculating a precision as precision=TP/(TP+FP), wherein TP mayrepresent the number of true positives pixels and FP may represent thenumber of false positives pixels. Still refer to the embodiment of thescene of a football match shown in FIG. 35. In the segmented 2D image3510 of FIG. 35, outlines of the objects, which defines regions of truepositives pixels, are shown by solid lines and a region of falsepositives pixels 3514 is shown by a shaded area. In this embodiment, theprecision may be a ratio of the number of true positives pixels in theregions of true positives pixels to the total number of pixels in theregions of true positives pixels and the region of false positivespixels 3514.

FIG. 39 is a flow chart illustrating a method 3900 for comparing thesegmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result foreach image according to an embodiment.

At block 3920, the method 3900 may compare values of pixels of thesegmented 2D image with values of corresponding values of the 2D mask todetermine true positives pixels and false negatives pixels. The truepositives pixels may correspond to points in the 3D point cloud that arecorrectly created, and the false negatives pixels may correspond topoints in the 3D point cloud that should have been created but have notbeen created.

At block 3940, the method 3900 may obtain the comparison result for eachimage by calculating a recall as recall=TP/(TP+FN), wherein TP mayrepresent the number of true positives pixels and FN may represent thenumber of false negatives pixels. Still refer to the embodiment of thescene of a football match shown in FIG. 35. In the segmented 2D image3510 of FIG. 35, outlines of the objects, which defines regions of truepositives pixels, are shown by solid lines and a region of falsenegatives pixels 3512 is shown by dashed lines. In this embodiment, therecall may be a ratio of the number of true positives pixels in theregions of true positives pixels to the total number of pixels in theregions of true positives pixels and the region of false negativespixels 3512.

FIG. 40 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus 4000 for evaluatingthe quality of a 3D point cloud according to an embodiment. As discussedabove with reference to FIG. 27, a 3D point cloud may be created for ascene (e.g., a football match) comprising a plurality of objects (e.g.,a plurality of players) from a plurality of images captured from aplurality of cameras.

As shown in FIG. 40, the apparatus 4000 may comprise an image segmenter4020, a 2D mask generator 4040, a comparator 4060 and an evaluator 4080.

The image segmenter 4020 and the 2D mask generator 4040 may receiveinputs from outside the apparatus 4000. The output of the imagesegmenter 4020 and the output of the 2D mask generator 4040 may beprovided to the comparator 4060. The output of the comparator 4060 maybe provided to the evaluator 4080. The output of the evaluator 4080 maybe provided to another device outside the apparatus 4000.

According to some embodiments, the image segmenter 4020 may receive aplurality of images of a scene. The plurality of images may be capturedby a plurality of cameras to create a 3D point cloud for the scene. Theimage segmenter 4020 may generate a segmented 2D image for each receivedimage.

In some embodiments, the image segmenter 4020 may generate a block-basedsegmented 2D image as the final segmented 2D image.

Specifically, the image segmenter 4020 may detect objects in the scenewith an object detection algorithm to obtain a 2D bounding box for eachdetected object. In some embodiments, a convolutional neural network(CNN) algorithm may be used as the object detection algorithm. Forexample, YOLO algorithm may be used as the object detection algorithm.It is noted that the present disclosure is not limited to any specificobject detection algorithm.

The image segmenter 4020 may also filter out detected objects outside aregion of interest that is inside the scene. For example, if the sceneis a scene of a football game played by a plurality of players insidethe playfield, the audience outside the playfield may be regarded as theobjects out of interest and may be filtered out even if they have beendetected as objects. In some embodiments, the objects outside the regionof interest may be filtered out by a pre-defined mask. Still referringto the example of the football match, a pre-defined mask for thefootball field may be used to filter out the detected objectscorresponding to the audience.

The image segmenter 4020 may also pad each 2D bounding box inside theregion of interest outwards with padding pixels to form a plurality ofblocks each having a first size.

The image segmenter 4020 may also apply a segmentation algorithm to theplurality of blocks to generate block-based segmented results. In someembodiments, a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm may be usedas the segmentation algorithm. For example, a DeepLabV3+ algorithm maybe used as the segmentation algorithm. It is noted that the presentdisclosure is not limited to any specific segmentation algorithm.

The image segmenter 4020 may also combine the block-based segmentedresults to generate a block-based segmented 2D image.

In other embodiments, the image segmenter 4020 may alternativelygenerate a tile-based segmented 2D image as the final segmented 2Dimage.

Specifically, the image segmenter 4020 may split each of the pluralityof images into a first plurality of tiles each having a first size and asecond plurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller thanthe first size. For example, each image may be split by horizontal linesand vertical lines to form tiles of the first size. With such splitting,there still may be some edge tiles each having a second size smallerthan the first size. Those edge tiles need to be further processed.

The image segmenter 4020 may also pad the second plurality of edge tilesoutwards with padding pixels to form the second plurality of padded edgetiles each having the first size.

The image segmenter 4020 may also apply a segmentation algorithm to thefirst plurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tilesto generate tile-based segmented results. In some embodiments, aconvolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm may be used as thesegmentation algorithm. For example, DeepLabV3+ algorithm may be used asthe segmentation algorithm. It is noted that the present disclosure isnot limited to any specific object detection algorithm.

The image segmenter 4020 may also combine the tile-based segmentedresults for the first plurality of tiles and the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented 2D image.

In further embodiments, the image segmenter 4020 may generate both ablock-based segmented 2D image and a tile-based segmented 2D image asdiscussed above. In these embodiments, the image segmenter 4020 may alsomerge the block-based segmented 2D image and the tile-based segmented 2Dimage to generate the segmented 2D image. In some embodiments, the imagesegmenter 4020 may perform logical OR operations of values of pixels ofthe block-based segmented 2D image and values of corresponding pixels ofthe tile-based segmented 2D image. It is noted that the presentdisclosure is not limited to any specific operation for merging.

The advantage of merging the block-based segmented 2D image and thetile-based segmented 2D image to obtain a segmented 2D image isdiscussed above with reference to the method 3600 of FIG. 36.

According to some embodiments, the 2D mask generator 4040 may receive aplurality of images of a scene. The plurality of images may be the sameplurality of images as received by the image segmenter 4020. The 2D maskgenerator 4020 may generate a 2D mask from the 3D point cloud for eachimage corresponding to the image received by the image segmenter 4020.

In some embodiments, the 2D mask generator 4040 may generate the 2D maskfor each image by applying calibration matrix of the correspondingcamera. Specifically, the 2D mask generator 4040 may perform dot productoperations of a calibration matrix of each camera and a 3D position datafor a point in the 3D point cloud to obtain a product matrix of thepoint. The 2D mask generator 4040 may also obtain a 2D position data forthe point. The 2D mask generator 4040 may also form a 2D mask result forthe point that comprises the 2D position data and a unique indexidentifying the point. An embodiment of a process to obtain a 2D maskresult for the point has been described above with respect to FIG. 37.The 2D mask generator 4040 may also combine 2D mask results for all thepoints in the 3D point cloud to generate the 2D mask for each image.

As explained above, the 3D point data for each point in the 3D pointcloud may be represented as (x, y, z, p-index), wherein x, y, z may be3D coordinate values of each point and the p-index may be a unique indexto identify each point.

According to some embodiments, the comparator 4060 may receive thesegmented 2D images generated by the image segmenter 4020 and the 2Dmasks generated by the 2D mask generator. The comparator 4060 maycompare the segmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparisonresult for each image. Optionally, prior to the comparison, thesegmented 2D image may be tuned to improve the accuracy of the segmentedresults or may be tuned into a segmentation ground truth image. In someembodiments, the tuning may be a manual tuning, an automatic tuning, ora combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the comparator 4060 may obtain a precision as thecomparison result for each image. Specifically, the comparator 4060 maycompare values of pixels of the segmented 2D image with values ofcorresponding pixels of the 2D mask to determine true positives pixelsand false positives pixels. The true positives pixels may correspond topoints in the 3D point cloud that are correctly created, and the falsepositives pixels may correspond to noise points in the 3D point cloudthat are to be removed. The comparator 4060 may also obtain thecomparison result for each image by calculating a precision asprecision=TP/(TP+FP).

In other embodiments, the comparator 4060 may additionally oralternatively obtain a recall as the comparison result for each image.Specifically, the comparator 4060 may compare values of pixels of thesegmented 2D image with values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask todetermine true positives pixels and false negatives pixels. The truepositives pixels may correspond to points in the 3D point cloud that arecorrectly created, and the false negatives pixels may correspond topoints in the 3D point cloud that should have been created but have notbeen created. The comparator 4060 may also obtain the comparison resultfor each image by calculating a recall as recall=TP/(TP+FN).

According to some embodiments, the evaluator 4080 may receive thecomparison result for each image from the comparator 4060. The evaluator4080 may aggregate the comparison results for all of the images andevaluate the quality of the 3D point cloud based on the aggregatedcomparison results. In some embodiments, the evaluator 4080 may sum thecomparison results for the plurality of images and calculate a mean ofthe summation to evaluate the quality of the 3D point cloud. It is notedthat the present disclosure is not limited to any specific approach toaggregate the comparison results for the plurality of images.

Any of the image segmenter 4020, the 2D mask generator 4040, thecomparator 4060, and the evaluator 4080 in FIG. 40 may be implemented inhardware, software, firmware and/or a combination thereof.

With the evaluation result provided by the apparatus 4000, a processingdevice which created the 3D point cloud may further optimize the 3Dpoint cloud.

Embodiments of the mechanisms disclosed herein may be implemented ascomputer programs or program code executed on programmable systemscomprising at least one processor and a data storage to store thedatabase as described above.

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented byrepresentative instructions stored on a machine-readable medium whichrepresents various logic within the processor, the instructions whenread by a machine causing the machine to fabricate logic to perform thetechniques described herein. Such machine-readable storage media mayinclude, without limitation, non-transitory, tangible arrangements ofarticles manufactured or formed by a machine or device, includingstorage media such as hard disks, any other type of disk includingfloppy disks, optical disks, compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs),compact disk rewritable's (CD-RWs), and magneto-optical disks,semiconductor devices such as read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs) such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs), staticrandom access memories (SRAMs), erasable programmable read-only memories(EPROMs), flash memories, electrically erasable programmable read-onlymemories (EEPROMs), phase change memory (PCM), magnetic or opticalcards, or any other type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions.

FURTHER EXAMPLES

The following examples pertain to further example implementations.

Example 1 is an apparatus for evaluating a three dimensional (3D) pointcloud for a scene comprising objects, the 3D point cloud being createdfrom a plurality of images captured by a plurality of cameras, theapparatus comprising: an image segmenter to generate a segmented twodimensional (2D) image for each of the plurality of images; a 2D maskgenerator to generate a 2D mask for each of the plurality of images fromthe 3D point cloud; a comparator to compare the segmented 2D image withthe 2D mask to obtain a comparison result for each image; and anevaluator to evaluate the 3D point cloud based on aggregated comparisonresults for the plurality of images.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the imagesegmenter being further to: detect objects in the scene with an objectdetection algorithm to obtain a 2D bounding box for each detectedobject; filter out detected objects outside a region of interest that isinside the scene; pad each 2D bounding box inside the region of interestoutwards with padding pixels to form a plurality of blocks each having afirst size; apply a segmentation algorithm to the plurality of blocks togenerate block-based segmented results; and combine the block-basedsegmented results to generate a block-based segmented 2D image.

In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 2, wherein the imagesegmenter being further to: split each of the plurality of images into afirst plurality of tiles each having the first size and a secondplurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller than the firstsize; pad the second plurality of edge tiles outwards with paddingpixels to form the second plurality of padded edge tiles each having thefirst size; apply a segmentation algorithm to the first plurality oftiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles to generatetile-based segmented results for the first plurality of tiles and thesecond plurality of padded edge tiles; combine the tile-based segmentedresults for the first plurality of tiles and the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented 2D image; and mergethe block-based segmented 2D image and the tile-based segmented 2D imageto generate the segmented 2D image.

In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3, wherein the imagesegmenter being further to perform logical OR operations of values ofpixels of the block-based segmented 2D image and values of correspondingpixels of the tile-based segmented 2D image.

In Example 5, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the imagesegmenter being further to: split each of the plurality of images into afirst plurality of tiles each having a first size and a second pluralityof edge tiles each having a second size smaller than the first size; padthe second plurality of edge tiles outwards with padding pixels to formthe second plurality of padded edge tiles each having the first size;apply a segmentation algorithm to the first plurality of tiles and thesecond plurality of padded edge tiles to generate tile-based segmentedresults for the first plurality of tiles and the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles; and combine the tile-based segmented results for thefirst plurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tilesto generate a tile-based segmented 2D image.

In Example 6, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the 2D maskgenerator being further to: perform dot product operations of acalibration matrix of each camera and 3D position data for a point inthe 3D point cloud to obtain a product matrix for the point; obtain a 2Dposition data from the product matrix for the point; form a 2D maskresult for the point that comprises the 2D position data and a uniqueindex identifying the point; and combine 2D mask results for all thepoints in the 3D point cloud to generate the 2D mask for each image.

In Example 7, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the comparatorbeing further to: compare values of pixels of the segmented 2D imagewith values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask to determine truepositives pixels and false positives pixels, wherein the true positivespixels correspond to points in the 3D point cloud that are correctlycreated, and the false positives pixels correspond to noise points inthe 3D point cloud that are to be removed; and obtain the comparisonresult for each image by calculating a precision asprecision=TP/(TP+FP), where TP represents the number of true positivespixels and FP represents the number of false positives pixels.

In Example 8, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the comparatorbeing further to: compare values of pixels of segmented 2D image withvalues of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask to determine truepositives pixels and false negatives pixels, wherein the true positivespixels correspond to points in the 3D point cloud that are correctlycreated, and the false negatives pixels correspond to points in the 3Dpoint cloud that should have been created but have not been created; andobtain the comparison result for each image by calculating a recall asrecall=TP/(TP+FN), where TP represents the number of true positivespixels and FN represents the number of false negatives pixels.

In Example 9, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the evaluatorbeing further to: calculate a sum of the aggregated comparison results;calculate a mean of the sum; and evaluate the 3D point cloud based onthe mean.

In Example 10, the subject matter of Example 1, wherein the segmented 2Dimage is tuned prior to being compared with the 2D mask.

In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 2, wherein the objectdetection algorithm is a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm.

In Example 12, the subject matter of Example 2 or 5, wherein thesegmentation algorithm is a convolutional neural network (CNN)algorithm.

Example 13 is a method for evaluating a three dimensional (3D) pointcloud for a scene comprising objects, the 3D point cloud being createdfrom a plurality of images captured by a plurality of cameras, themethod comprising: generating a segmented two dimensional (2D) image foreach of the plurality of images; generating a 2D mask for each of theplurality of images from the 3D point cloud; comparing the segmented 2Dimage with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result for each image; andevaluating the 3D point cloud based on aggregated comparison results forthe plurality of images.

In Example 14, the subject matter of Example 12, wherein generating thesegmented 2D image comprises: detecting objects in the scene with anobject detection algorithm to obtain a 2D bounding box for each detectedobject; filtering out detected objects outside a region of interest thatis inside the scene; padding each 2D bounding box inside the region ofinterest outwards with padding pixels to form a plurality of blocks eachhaving a first size; applying a segmentation algorithm to the pluralityof blocks to generate block-based segmented results; and combining theblock-based segmented results to generate a block-based segmented 2Dimage.

In Example 15, the subject matter of Example 13, wherein generating thesegmented 2D image further comprises: splitting each of the plurality ofimages into a first plurality of tiles each having the first size and asecond plurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller thanthe first size; padding the second plurality of edge tiles outwards withpadding pixels to form the second plurality of padded edge tiles eachhaving the first size; applying a segmentation algorithm to the firstplurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles togenerate tile-based segmented results for the first plurality of tilesand the second plurality of padded edge tiles; combining the tile-basedsegmented results for the first plurality of tiles and the secondplurality of padded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented 2Dimage; and merging the block-based segmented 2D image and the tile-basedsegmented 2D image to generate the segmented 2D image.

In Example 16, the subject matter of Example 14, wherein merging theblock-based segmented 2D image and the tile-based segmented 2D imagecomprises performing logical OR operations of values of pixels of theblock-based segmented 2D image and values of corresponding pixels of thetile-based segmented 2D image.

In Example 17, the subject matter of Example 15, wherein generating thesegmented 2D image further comprises: splitting each of the plurality ofimages into a first plurality of tiles each having a first size and asecond plurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller thanthe first size; padding the second plurality of edge tiles outwards withpadding pixels to form the second plurality of padded edge tiles eachhaving the first size; applying a segmentation algorithm to the firstplurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles togenerate tile-based segmented results for the first plurality of tilesand the second plurality of padded edge tiles; and combining thetile-based segmented results for the first plurality of tiles and thesecond plurality of padded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented2D image.

In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 13, wherein generating a 2Dmask for each of the plurality of images from the 3D point cloudcomprises: performing dot product operations of a calibration matrix ofeach camera and 3D position data for a point in the 3D point cloud toobtain a product matrix for the point; obtaining a 2D position data fromthe product matrix for the point; forming a 2D mask result for the pointthat comprises the 2D position data and a unique index identifying thepoint; and combining 2D mask results for all the points in the 3D pointcloud to generate the 2D mask for each image.

In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 13, wherein comparing thesegmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result foreach image comprises: comparing values of pixels of the segmented 2Dimage with values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask to determinetrue positives pixels and false positives pixels, wherein the truepositives pixels correspond to points in the 3D point cloud that arecorrectly created, and the false positives pixels correspond to noisepoints in the 3D point cloud that are to be removed; and obtaining thecomparison result for each image by calculating a precision asprecision=TP/(TP+FP), where TP represents the number of true positivespixels and FP represents the number of false positives pixels.

In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 13, wherein comparing thesegmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result foreach image comprises: comparing values of pixels of the segmented 2Dimage with values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask to determinetrue positives pixels and false negatives pixels, wherein the truepositives pixels correspond to points in the 3D point cloud that arecorrectly created, and the false negatives pixels correspond to pointsin the 3D point cloud that should have been created but have not beencreated; and obtaining the comparison result for each image bycalculating a recall as recall=TP/(TP+FN), where TP represents thenumber of true positives pixels and FN represents the number of falsenegatives pixels.

In Example 21, the subject matter of Example 13, wherein evaluating the3D point cloud based on aggregated comparison results for the pluralityof images comprises: calculating a sum of the aggregated comparisonresults; calculating a mean of the sum; and evaluating the 3D pointcloud based on the mean.

In Example 22, the subject matter of Example 13, the method comprising:tuning the segmented 2D image prior to comparing the segmented 2D imagewith the 2D mask.

In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 14, wherein the objectdetection algorithm is a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm.

In Example 24, the subject matter of Example 14 or 17, wherein thesegmentation algorithm is a convolutional neural network (CNN)algorithm.

Example 25 is a computer-readable medium comprising instructions thatwhen being executed cause a computing device to perform the method ofany of Examples 13-24.

Example 26 is an apparatus comprising means for performing the method ofany of Examples 13-24.

The foregoing description and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. Persons skilled in the artwill understand that various modifications and changes may be made tothe embodiments described herein without departing from the broaderspirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus for evaluating a three dimensional(3D) point cloud for a scene comprising objects, the 3D point cloudbeing created from a plurality of images captured by a plurality ofcameras, the apparatus comprising: an image segmenter to generate asegmented two dimensional (2D) image for each of the plurality ofimages, wherein the image segmenter is to detect objects in the scenewith an object detection algorithm to obtain a 2D bounding box for eachdetected object; filter out detected objects outside a region ofinterest that is inside the scene; pad each 2D bounding box inside aregion of interest outwards with padding pixels to form a plurality ofblocks each having a first size; a 2D mask generator to generate a 2Dmask for each of the plurality of images from the 3D point cloud; acomparator to compare the segmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtaina comparison result for each image; and an evaluator to evaluate the 3Dpoint cloud based on aggregated comparison results for the plurality ofimages.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image segmenter isfurther to: apply a segmentation algorithm to the plurality of blocks togenerate block-based segmented results; and combine the block-basedsegmented results to generate a block-based segmented 2D image.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2, wherein the image segmenter is further to: spliteach of the plurality of images into a first plurality of tiles eachhaving the first size and a second plurality of edge tiles each having asecond size smaller than the first size; pad the second plurality ofedge tiles outwards with padding pixels to form the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles each having the first size; apply a segmentationalgorithm to the first plurality of tiles and the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles to generate tile-based segmented results for the firstplurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles;combine the tile-based segmented results for the first plurality oftiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles to generate atile-based segmented 2D image; and merge the block-based segmented 2Dimage and the tile-based segmented 2D image to generate the segmented 2Dimage, wherein the image segmenter being further to perform logical ORoperations of values of pixels of the block-based segmented 2D image andvalues of corresponding pixels of the tile-based segmented 2D image. 4.The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the segmentation algorithm is aconvolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm.
 5. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the image segmenter is further to: split each of theplurality of images into a first plurality of tiles each having a firstsize and a second plurality of edge tiles each having a second sizesmaller than the first size; pad the second plurality of edge tilesoutwards with padding pixels to form the second plurality of padded edgetiles each having the first size; apply a segmentation algorithm to thefirst plurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tilesto generate tile-based segmented results for the first plurality oftiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles; and combine thetile-based segmented results for the first plurality of tiles and thesecond plurality of padded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented2D image.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the 2D mask generator isfurther to: perform dot product operations of a calibration matrix ofeach camera and 3D position data for a point in the 3D point cloud toobtain a product matrix for the point; obtain a 2D position data fromthe product matrix for the point; form a 2D mask result for the pointthat comprises the 2D position data and a unique index identifying thepoint; and combine 2D mask results for all the points in the 3D pointcloud to generate the 2D mask for each image.
 7. The apparatus of claim1, wherein the comparator is further to: compare values of pixels of thesegmented 2D image with values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask todetermine true positives pixels and false positives pixels, wherein thetrue positives pixels correspond to points in the 3D point cloud thatare correctly created, and the false positives pixels correspond tonoise points in the 3D point cloud that are to be removed; and obtainthe comparison result for each image by calculating a precision asprecision=TP/(TP+FP), where TP represents the number of true positivespixels and FP represents the number of false positives pixels, orwherein the comparator is further to: compare values of pixels ofsegmented 2D image with values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask todetermine true positives pixels and false negatives pixels, wherein thetrue positives pixels correspond to points in the 3D point cloud thatare correctly created, and the false negatives pixels correspond topoints in the 3D point cloud that should have been created but have notbeen created; and obtain the comparison result for each image bycalculating a recall as recall=TP/(TP+FN), where TP represents thenumber of true positives pixels and FN represents the number of falsenegatives pixels.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the evaluator isfurther to: calculate a sum of the aggregated comparison results;calculate a mean of the sum; and evaluate the 3D point cloud based onthe mean, and wherein the segmented 2D image is tuned prior to beingcompared with the 2D mask.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein theobject detection algorithm is a convolutional neural network (CNN)algorithm.
 10. A method for evaluating a three dimensional (3D) pointcloud for a scene comprising objects, the 3D point cloud being createdfrom a plurality of images captured by a plurality of cameras, themethod comprising: generating a segmented two dimensional (2D) image foreach of the plurality of images; generating a 2D mask for each of theplurality of images from the 3D point cloud, wherein generating a 2Dmask for each of the plurality of images from the 3D point cloudcomprises: performing dot product operations of a calibration matrix ofeach camera and 3D position data for a point in the 3D point cloud toobtain a product matrix for the point; obtaining a 2D position data fromthe product matrix for the point; forming a 2D mask result for the pointthat comprises the 2D position data and a unique index identifying thepoint; and combining 2D mask results for all the points in the 3D pointcloud to generate the 2D mask for each image; comparing the segmented 2Dimage with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result for each image; andevaluating the 3D point cloud based on aggregated comparison results forthe plurality of images.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein generatingthe segmented 2D image comprises: detecting objects in the scene with anobject detection algorithm to obtain a 2D bounding box for each detectedobject; filtering out detected objects outside a region of interest thatis inside the scene; padding each 2D bounding box inside the region ofinterest outwards with padding pixels to form a plurality of blocks eachhaving a first size; applying a segmentation algorithm to the pluralityof blocks to generate block-based segmented results; and combining theblock-based segmented results to generate a block-based segmented 2Dimage.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein generating the segmented 2Dimage further comprises: splitting each of the plurality of images intoa first plurality of tiles each having the first size and a secondplurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller than the firstsize; padding the second plurality of edge tiles outwards with paddingpixels to form the second plurality of padded edge tiles each having thefirst size; applying a segmentation algorithm to the first plurality oftiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles to generatetile-based segmented results for the first plurality of tiles and thesecond plurality of padded edge tiles; combining the tile-basedsegmented results for the first plurality of tiles and the secondplurality of padded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented 2Dimage; and merging the block-based segmented 2D image and the tile-basedsegmented 2D image to generate the segmented 2D image, wherein mergingthe block-based segmented 2D image and the tile-based segmented 2D imagecomprises performing logical OR operations of values of pixels of theblock-based segmented 2D image and values of corresponding pixels of thetile-based segmented 2D image.
 13. The method of claim 10, whereingenerating the segmented 2D image further comprises: splitting each ofthe plurality of images into a first plurality of tiles each having afirst size and a second plurality of edge tiles each having a secondsize smaller than the first size; padding the second plurality of edgetiles outwards with padding pixels to form the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles each having the first size; applying a segmentationalgorithm to the first plurality of tiles and the second plurality ofpadded edge tiles to generate tile-based segmented results for the firstplurality of tiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles; andcombining the tile-based segmented results for the first plurality oftiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles to generate atile-based segmented 2D image.
 14. The method of claim 10, whereincomparing the segmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparisonresult for each image comprises: comparing values of pixels of thesegmented 2D image with values of corresponding pixels of the 2D mask todetermine true positives pixels and false positives pixels, wherein thetrue positives pixels correspond to points in the 3D point cloud thatare correctly created, and the false positives pixels correspond tonoise points in the 3D point cloud that are to be removed; and obtainingthe comparison result for each image by calculating a precision asprecision=TP/(TP+FP), where TP represents the number of true positivespixels and FP represents the number of false positives pixels, orwherein comparing the segmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain acomparison result for each image comprises: comparing values of pixelsof the segmented 2D image with values of corresponding pixels of the 2Dmask to determine true positives pixels and false negatives pixels,wherein the true positives pixels correspond to points in the 3D pointcloud that are correctly created, and the false negatives pixelscorrespond to points in the 3D point cloud that should have been createdbut have not been created; and obtaining the comparison result for eachimage by calculating a recall as recall=TP/(TP+FN), where TP representsthe number of true positives pixels and FN represents the number offalse negatives pixels.
 15. The method of claim 10, wherein evaluatingthe 3D point cloud based on aggregated comparison results for theplurality of images comprises: calculating a sum of the aggregatedcomparison results; calculating a mean of the sum; and evaluating the 3Dpoint cloud based on the mean, the method further comprising: tuning thesegmented 2D image prior to comparing the segmented 2D image with the 2Dmask.
 16. The method of claim 11, wherein the object detection algorithmis a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm.
 17. The method ofclaim 11, wherein the segmentation algorithm is a convolutional neuralnetwork (CNN) algorithm.
 18. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumcomprising instructions that when being executed cause a computingdevice to perform: generating a segmented two dimensional (2D) image foreach of a plurality of images captured by a plurality of cameras;generating a 2D mask for each of the plurality of images from a 3D pointcloud for a scene comprising objects, the 3D point cloud being createdfrom the plurality of images captured by the plurality of cameras;comparing the segmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparisonresult for each image; and evaluating the 3D point cloud based onaggregated comparison results for the plurality of images, whereinevaluating the 3D point cloud based on aggregated comparison results forthe plurality of images comprises: calculating a sum of the aggregatedcomparison results; calculating a mean of the sum; and evaluating the 3Dpoint cloud based on the mean, the method further comprising: tuning thesegmented 2D image prior to comparing the segmented 2D image with the 2Dmask.
 19. An apparatus for evaluating a three dimensional (3D) pointcloud for a scene comprising objects, the 3D point cloud being createdfrom a plurality of images captured by a plurality of cameras, theapparatus comprising: an image segmenter to generate a segmented twodimensional (2D) image for each of the plurality of images, wherein theimage segmenter is further to: split each of the plurality of imagesinto a first plurality of tiles each having a first size and a secondplurality of edge tiles each having a second size smaller than the firstsize; pad the second plurality of edge tiles outwards with paddingpixels to form the second plurality of padded edge tiles each having thefirst size; apply a segmentation algorithm to the first plurality oftiles and the second plurality of padded edge tiles to generatetile-based segmented results for the first plurality of tiles and thesecond plurality of padded edge tiles; and combine the tile-basedsegmented results for the first plurality of tiles and the secondplurality of padded edge tiles to generate a tile-based segmented 2Dimage; a 2D mask generator to generate a 2D mask for each of theplurality of images from the 3D point cloud; a comparator to compare thesegmented 2D image with the 2D mask to obtain a comparison result foreach image; and an evaluator to evaluate the 3D point cloud based onaggregated comparison results for the plurality of images.